Sarah Catalano, NSWA Communications Director
WASHINGTON, DC—The National Stripper Well Association (NSWA) is continuing to engage lawmakers in support of exports by submitting a statement for the record to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee in advance of a hearing on U.S. crude oil export policy.
NSWA’s comments focused primarily on the importance of the ability for the smallest U.S. producers to compete in world markets. NSWA made sure the SENRC was aware of stripper well producers, like many in America’s oil and gas industry, who have for decades been in an economic struggle with international forces primarily concerned with controlling the price of oil on global markets. The statement said, “Much of the internationally traded oil of the world is controlled by a combination of foreign governments and state-run corporations who collude together to control the price of oil to benefit their own agendas, with no regard for the impact on the American people or businesses.”
NSWA’s statement continued, in part, by saying, “Many stripper well operators and companies are making massive new investments into driving this new era of abundance the same global forces that have driven world oil prices for the last 40 years are once again colluding together to stifle our energy development. And the U.S. ban on crude oil exports is hurting our ability to finance, invest in, and advance our energy production.”
The statement also stressed that expanding exports into a free market will help make the world safer by selling American goods to American allies.
“By opening American exports of oil and natural gas to America’s allies, we can free our allies from a dependence on nation states that are not our friends, and who fund terrorism around the world, and conspire to deny basic human rights and dignity on a regular basis.
“American NATO allies like Poland, Hungary, and Estonia are overwhelmingly dependent on Russian oil and gas. Allowing American producers to compete with Russia on this playing field will free those nations from their dependence and grant them greater energy security,” NSWA’s statement said.
NSWA’s statement concluded with a solution to the challenge presented today: “Allow our domestic energy producers to compete with those foreign state-owned corporations on the international market. When America competes on the world market, Americans win. When given the opportunity, our skills, work ethic and abilities make the United States the most productive and successful nation on earth. The energy industry is no exception.”
ABOUT NSWA: The National Stripper Well Association was founded in 1934 as the only national association representing the interests of the nation’s smallest and most economically vulnerable wells before Congress, the Administration and the Federal bureaucracies. It is the belief of NSWA that producers, owners and operators of marginally-producing wells have a unique set of needs and concerns regarding federal legislation and regulation. NSWA’s sole responsibility is advocacy on behalf of these small producers.
NSWA Chairman Mike Cantrell may be quoted with any of the statements above.