House Approves Proposal to Recover $10 Bln From Oil Producers

The U.S. House of Representatives approved a Democratic plan to renegotiate Gulf of Mexico oil leases and take back $10 billion in incentives granted to Exxon Mobil Corp., ConocoPhillips and other producers.

The measure, amended to an Interior Department spending bill, addresses leases from 1998 and 1999 that exempted energy companies from fees for pumping oil and gas in the Gulf of Mexico regardless of how high oil prices go. Price thresholds for relief from royalty fees were omitted by mistake in those two years, according to the agency responsible for the contracts.

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