Which is a pretty legitimate write-off considering they are an expense. To expand what you mean is that in some cases they can be expensed entirely in one or two years instead of 5 or 6 years that most capital assets will be mostly written down. In the end, the government gets the same amount of taxes and the company will pay a similar amount of taxe. It is pretty hard to call that a subsidy. But this is always the one that comes up because typically there is no tax dollars provided and little to no other benefits oil and gas receive.

But secondly, and why it is pretty much a legitimate write off is that often, especially with exploration, the well value does not provide returns. When that is the case, all the capital spent on said well pretty much has zero value. It makes sense and is fair to write it off. You can do that on any business if you can justify that the item is no longer viable and you can't sell it.

There are a number of reasons we should limit our fossil fuel consumption but it certainly is not for the tax benefits it provides.