Correct !!! How about the oil companies forgo some of that $174 BILLION profit they made in 2021?
FOR THE RECORD - THIS IS FROM 2004
Most oil leases on public lands go unused
A review of federal records shows that nearly three-fourths of the 40 million acres of public land currently leased for oil and gas development in the continental United States isn’t producing any oil or gas.
Nearly three-fourths of the 40 million acres of public land currently leased for oil and gas development in the continental United States outside Alaska isn’t producing any oil or gas, federal records show, even as the Bush administration pushes to open more environmentally sensitive public lands for oil and gas development.
An Associated Press computer analysis of Bureau of Land Management records found that 80 percent of federal lands leased for oil and gas production in Wyoming are producing no oil or gas. Neither are 83 percent of the leased acres in Montana, 77 percent in Utah, 71 percent in Colorado, 36 percent in New Mexico and 99 percent in Nevada.
How much exploration has occurred on the nearly 30 million acres of non-producing public land leases is difficult to say. BLM officials could provide no details on the number of exploratory wells drilled on those leases, despite repeated requests for that information over the past two months.
A review of federal records shows that nearly three-fourths of the 40 million acres of public land currently leased for oil and gas development in the continental United States isn’t producing any oil or gas.
www.nbcnews.com