Pete Domenici: “the Wall Street Journal yesterday wrote: What is not in dispute is how hard a hit small domestic oil took during the…”

“the Wall Street Journal yesterday wrote: What is not in dispute is how hard a hit small domestic oil took during the recent downturn in oil prices. While larger oil companies with their huge asset bases and integrated businesses were able to weather the storm, many of the smaller producers, which operate on low margins and minuscule volumes, lurched toward ruin. These small producers, who mop up the tailings of the country's once-great oil fields primarily in the West and the Mid-west collectively produce about 1.4 million barrels of oil daily, an amount roughly equivalent to that imported to Saudi Arabia. And the total number of such subsistence wells, defined by the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission as ones producing 10 barrels of crude a day or less were abandoned at an accelerated rate during the downturn, experts say. The Wall Street Journal is not the only entity noticing the plight of the domestic independent oil and gas industry. DOE recently wrote: ``Domestic crude oil producers have seen the price of their product (adjusted for inflation) fall to levels not seen since the 1930's.'' Independent oil and gas producers have wells in 32 States. Senators from these producing States have heard from the producers, oil and gas service small businesses, Governors, mayors and county commissioners. The situation was so bad in Oklahoma that the Governor held a special session of the legislature.…”