Exxon Mobil spent $3.2M on 3Q lobbying

[December 19, 2011]  WASHINGTON (AP) -- Exxon Mobil Corp. spent $3.21 million in the third quarter to lobby the federal government on offshore oil drilling and other issues, according to a disclosure report.

That's down from the $4.12 million that the world's largest publicly traded oil and company spent in the year-ago period, and less than the $3.81 million it spent in the second quarter of 2011. Exxon also lobbied the federal government on legislation involving oil pipelines, hydraulic fracturing, security provisions for chemical facilities, consumer product safety, toxic substance rules, air quality standards, patent reform, regulations related to corporate aircraft, according to the report filed on Oct. 20.

Regulators allowed Exxon and other oil companies to re-enter the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico this year, following BP's massive oil spill in April 2010. Exxon already has announced a major oil discovery in the region this year, and it continues to press for more access to other offshore areas.

Oil prices have jumped about 27 percent since the beginning of October, and the government expects benchmark crude prices to rise in 2012.

In the July-to-September period, the company lobbied Congress, the Council on Environmental Quality, the U.S. Forest Service, the White House, and the departments of interior, state and treasury, according to the report filed with the House clerk's office.

[Associated Press]

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