Drilling Oil & Gas Wells NAICS 213111

Aug 23, 2025 - Support for the SPEED Act

• Eight energy industry trade associations – representing over 80% of US oil and natural gas production – are voicing their support for the bipartisan “Standardized Permitting and Expediting Development Act” (aka SPEED Act) introduced in the House Natural Resources Committee in July, according to a press release from the Independent Petroleum Association of America. The bill aims to streamline the federal permitting process – a longstanding pain point for energy producers – by amending the 1970 National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which the industry claims is unworkable and far more complicated than its original intent. The proposed legislation would update how federal agencies conduct environmental reviews under NEPA by narrowing agency review requirements. Moreover, it would allow agencies to use existing environmental reviews for other federal, state and tribal statutes that meet the NEPA requirements to avoid duplicative reviews and sets clear deadlines for completing reviews.
• The Trump administration has moved to open 23 million acres of Alaskan Wilderness to drilling by repealing protections imposed by the Biden administration, The New York Times reports. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said the previous administration exceeded its authority when it banned oil and gas drilling in the area known as the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. The petroleum reserve, established over a century ago as an energy warehouse for the US Navy, is estimated to contain more than 8 billion barrels of recoverable oil. The Bureau of Land Management has released a draft environmental assessment to propose reopening up to 82% of the reserve to oil and gas leasing and exploration and development. The proposal comes partly in response to Trump’s January executive order, “Unleashing Alaska’s Extraordinary Resource Potential," the Interior statement said. The area is home to ConocoPhillips’ Willow oil field, approved under Biden.

• A US District Court has ruled the National Marine Fisheries Service’s (NMFS) biological opinion for oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico fails to protect an endangered species of whale and sturgeon, Oil & Gas Journal reports. The ruling by the US District Court could imperil federal offshore oil and gas leasing drilling in the Gulf, several energy trade association defendants in the case – Sierra Club v. NMFS – said. The court said it would vacate the biological opinion on Dec. 20, 2024, if NMFS fails to complete a new one. Siding with environmental groups, the court challenged the biological opinion, saying it “underestimated the risk and harms of oil spills to protected species” and its jeopardy analysis for two listed species, the Rice’s whale and the Gulf sturgeon. The next federal Gulf of Mexico oil and gas lease sale is scheduled for 2025.
• Producer prices for drilling oil and gas wells services firms fell 1.4% in July compared to a year ago, after rising 3.3% in the previous July-versus-July annual comparison, according to the latest US Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Employment by the industry grew 11.1% year over year in June, while the average industry wage for support activities for oil and gas operations rose 6.8% over the same period to $36.62 per hour, down $0.30 from its high in March, BLS data show. In July, the price for one barrel of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil averaged $68.39, down from $81.80 in July 2024. Low crude prices are a disincentive for drilling activity.