Drilling Firm Seeks Favor as Expatriate

WASHINGTON, June 22

Competitors argue that they will be slowly strangled if Nabors is allowed to vie for contracts while paying little in taxes. Nabors is a well-run company, said Ken Wells, president of the Offshore Marine Service Association, and its tax advantages allow it to underbid other offshore supply companies. The association, therefore, opposes the provision as a favor to one of its 101 members at the expense of the others, Mr. Wells said.

Two years ago, after extensive negotiations with its competitors, Nabors won from Congress what amounted to a temporary exemption that ends in August 2007. So now the company’s chief executive, Eugene M. Isenberg, is asking Congress to make the exemption permanent. Kenneth J. Kies, the most influential tax lobbyist in town, has been making the case for Nabors, and he confirmed that only Nabors would benefit from deleting the sentence.

NY Times