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Gold/Mining/Energy : Harken Energy Corporation (HEC) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: SgtPepper who wrote (4275)	3/12/1999 12:13:00 PM
From: Rod Copeland	Respond to of 5504

SgtPepper, How do I say this without sounding like a bitter, burned to ground oil producer? Don't take this the wrong way, because I'm not overly bitter, but I do wish the world could see what is really going on. The tax break that the politicians are hyping up for the media, is a joke. They have given us a break on severance taxes. In order to pay the severance tax you have to be producing the well. Of forty-three wells I operate, I have eight of them producing. Six of those eight wells are losing money. I have to produce them to hold the leases. Granted this tax break is going to apply to the eight wells, but I have been notified that we have to certify each and every well, each and every month as being a "stripper well" (produces less than fifteen barrels per day). Just the paperwork alone, will cost us almost as much as the tax break. (Oil severance tax is 4.6% of gross sales.) As an industry friend said, "This helps about as much as throwing a lawn chair off the sinking Titanic." I don't want to sound unappreciative, but the politicians have had a field day with this, and the whole thing is limited to a whopping sum of $43 million dollars. Thats not much when you spread it out to the thousands of wells it is supposed to affect. ($312 per well/year is equal to $26/month/well.) I don't want the government helping at all in this manner. They always come back and extract a pound of flesh for every ounce they "help" you. (i.e., windfall profits tax) The only thing that will help us is a higher price, so we can put the shut in wells back into production. I always vote Republican, but I can tell you that the independent oil operators have historically done better with a Democrat in the White House. I don't know why that is, and I must say Clinton is an exception to the rule. This is the worst it has been in over sixty years. So I have a hard time thinking it will be better if Bush is elected. Who knows? I guess you'd have to think it can't get much worse, so whoever gets elected will have to be better than Clinton. I am just glad to see some improvement as of late. It will take another $4 per barrel increase to get us out of the hole we are in. I am thinking we are on our way! So hope this sheds a little light on the matter and don't think I am a sour puss. Things are looking up for us, but we need to keep our cool and know that it will take time to get back up to where we need it. Thanks for bringing up the issue and the thoughts. Rod.