Low natural gas prices are a worry, but they shouldn’t lead to a state budget hole, says Secretary of Finance Preston Doerflinger. “In fact, we’re expecting to end this fiscal year with a surplus that could exceed $300 million,” he said in a statement. Why? Mostly because of oil. “”We’ve seen record sales tax collections [...]
Worry over the low natural gas price seems to be spreading. State Senate President Pro Tem Brian Bingman, via the Tulsa World’s Barbara Hoberock: “I’m a little concerned on the potential revenue shortfall with natural gas prices,” said Bingman, R-Sapulpa.
The price of natural gas futures hit a new 10-year low on Monday, and layoffs might be on the horizon for small producers. The low prices have forced larger energy companies to shift to oil production. Many smaller natural gas producers in Oklahoma don’t have this option, reports The Oklahoman’s Adam Wilmoth. “They’re going to [...]
Oklahoma has enjoyed two years of revenue growth. The streak has been broken, the State Treasurer said today. The biggest drop: taxes from oil and gas. Total collections for March 2012 were only down about 0.3 percent from the same month last year, but the gross production tax fell by more than one-third, Miller said [...]
Oklahoma oil billionaire Harold Hamm has been appointed energy adviser to Republican primary front-runner Mitt Romney. Hamm is the founder and CEO of Enid-based Continental Resources Inc., and was ranked 36th on Forbes magazine’s list of 400 wealthiest Americans. His 68 percent stake in Continental is valued at $11.2 billion, reports Bloomberg News.
In campaign stops in Tulsa and Oklahoma City yesterday, Newt Gingrich reinforced the pro-religion, anti-regulation red state rallying cry, telling March 6 primary voters he’d undo most of President Barack Obama’s policies. Economically, Gingrich focused specifically on domestic energy expansion, which played well in oil and natural gas-loving Oklahoma.
Income tax and sales tax collections are up, and lawmakers will have about $43 million more to appropriate this year. That’s good news for an upcoming fiscal year with an estimated $100 million hole. But energy industry estimates were too generous. Natural gas prices are down, and anticipated revenues from gross production taxes have been [...]
President Barack Obama’s $3.8 trillion budget, which calls for tax hikes on the affluent and spending to boost economic growth, has set the stage for an election-year showdown with Republicans. It’s a political exercise, and Congress — in typical fashion — will likely ignore much of the president’s proposal. But the president’s budget reflects his [...]
The Republican presidential hopeful was in Oklahoma City yesterday and spoke to about 1,200 mostly conservative audience members at a crowded hotel convention center. The former two-term Republican U.S. senator from Pennsylvania told the crowd that hydraulic fracturing — which has been used in Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas for since the 1950s — is “the [...]
Heads up, Oklahoma energy industry: The federal government is poised to start regulating hydraulic fracturing, a petroleum energy consultant warned Tuesday. “You just know when regulation hits our industry bad things are going to happen,” said the consultant, Richard Spears of Tulsa-based Spears and Associates, reports The Oklahoman’s Jay F. Marks.
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