"$7 billion word processing error"

As we all know, the oil companies are having a hell of a time earning any money these days. ExxonMobil couldn't even manage to average $10 billion in profits a quarter last year. They only earned $36 billion for the entire year. The oil and energy companies are hurting so bad economically that Congress is getting ready to roll over and give them an additional $7 billion to spread among themselves. It seems that back in the 1990's when oil was below $30 a barrel and natural gas was $2-$3 per thousand cubic ft, the government decided that to incentivize energy companies to use federal lands for oil and gas exploration they would not charge those private companies any royalties for the product recovered from federal land. The 'no royalties' deal was suppose to stop when the price of oil per barrel hit a threshold of $34 and natural gas $4.34 per thousand cubic ft. Now when was the last time oil was $34 a barrel? Maybe five or six years ago? Oil is now consistently over $60 a barrel and natural gas is now around '$9-per-thousand-cubic-feet'. Somehow the threshold requirement was "inadvertently dropped" from an addendum attached to the agreement way back in the late 1990's and these companies want the government to forget this $7 billion that's owed to taxpayers. I think the government should just give those companies the $7 billion since the U.S. Treasury has so much money it doesn't know what to do with it and it's obvious these energy companies are low on funds and can't make a dime on oil or natural gas anymore.