Impending Jones Act Changes Could Cause Significant Job Losses In Oil & Gas

A new report from the American Petroleum Institute (API) on Monday predicted significant and damaging impacts from the Customs and Border Protection Agency’s (CBP) 30 proposed revisions on the enforcement of the Jones Act on issues relating to oil and gas vessel activity.

The API, an industry group relied upon for its weekly forecasts on American crude oil inventories, said the amendments, which relate to the redefinition of “vessel equipment” in the CBP’s protocol, could cause large job losses, reduced fossil fuel extraction on U.S. soil, and lower revenues for governments at all levels.

"This report projects that the proposed changes to these long-standing rulings would have widespread negative impacts on American jobs and the national economy, as well as a damaging effect on our national energy security," Erik Milito, upstream operations coordinator for the API, told PR Newswire.

"The study also concludes that these changes would have an abrupt negative impact on oil and natural gas development and investment in the Gulf of Mexico, further impacting consumers and businesses and substantially decreasing government revenue."

Critics of the amendments say the revisions undermine Trump’s goals of achieving American energy independence by increasing regulatory red-tape for oil and gas companies.

Data from the report shows 30,000 lost jobs in 2017 if the new rules are passed, with a majority of cuts expected in the Gulf of Mexico area. Government revenues would fall by $1.9 billion according to the API estimates.

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"President Trump's recent executive order on energy independence was an important step toward increasing American competitiveness, and these proposed changes completely undermine the order's purpose by placing unnecessary and harmful burdens on domestic energy production," said Milito. "These proposed changes to the rulings should be immediately withdrawn in order to protect U.S. energy security and allow for consumers and businesses to continue benefitting from America's energy renaissance."

By Zainab Calcuttawala for Oilprice.com

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