Fees Sought for Oil Leases
By BLOOMBERG NEWS

The Bush administration wants 56 oil and gas producers to renegotiate Gulf of Mexico drilling leases that let them avoid paying as much as $10 billion in government fees.

The Interior Department may ask the companies to voluntarily rewrite contracts from 1998 and 1999 to add a provision for royalty payments when oil and gas prices are high, said Johnnie Burton, director of the Minerals Management Service. Price thresholds for relief from royalty fees were accidentally omitted in those years.

"I am hoping that maybe some industry folks would be willing to come back and talk to us about getting some thresholds in those two years of leases," Ms. Burton said yesterday in Washington.

The American Petroleum Institute, representing oil companies, said earlier this week that the leases were valid contracts.