Washington (Platts)--26Apr2011/310 pm EDT/1910 GMT

A senior White House economic adviser Tuesday provided more detail on a renewed effort by President Barack Obama to rescind about $43 billion in tax subsidies to the oil and gas industry over a decade.

Gene Sperling, director of the National Economic Council, said the administration is making a new push with congressional leaders to end the domestic manufacturing credit, expensing of intangible drilling costs and the percentage depletion for oil and gas wells.

"We're very hopeful and we've seen some signs that there might be greater bipartisan openness to this," Sperling told reporters after a speech to the US Energy Information Administration's conference in Washington.

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Sperling would not respond to comments by House Speaker John Boehner, who said Monday that the oil depletion allowance and other subsidies for the sector should be on the table as Congress debates how to reduce the national deficit.

During the EIA speech, Sperling said the tax credits are prime targets for elimination, given the recent spike in oil and gasoline prices and the ongoing budget debates in Congress.

"At a time when we are asking our entire country to engage in shared sacrifice, we have to ask ourselves whether we can still afford $43 billion over 10 years on subsidies that do not seem to be efficient or needed," he said.

Sperling added that it was "worth examining whether it makes sense for us to provide subsidies for oil companies that they themselves have made clear that high oil prices provide more than enough incentive to invest in domestic exploration and production without special tax credits."

Sperling's comments came as Obama wrote House and Senate leaders to urge them to immediately rescind billions of dollars in "unwarranted" tax breaks for oil and gas producers (See story 1801 GMT).

Regarding a task force announced last week by Attorney General Eric Holder, Sperling said the administration wants to investigate possible manipulation of oil prices chiefly to give consumers confidence that no "collusion, fraud or misrepresentation" is swaying the retail, wholesale or commodity markets.

"We think it's critical at this moment that the public have trust that whatever they're facing is not being caused by the illegal or fraudulent behavior of others," he said.

--Meghan Gordon, meghan_gordon@platts.com