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North Slope oil production is running above last year based on new data from the Alaska Department of Revenue. Based on preliminary information, production from the slope has averaged 527,000 barrels per day for the state’s Fiscal Year 2017, the budget year that ended June 30. ”It’s definitely a year-over-year increase,” said Dan Stickel, chief petroleum economist at the revenue department. The figures are up from a 514,900 b/d average for FY 2016, the 12-month period, which ended June 30,…

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Alaska’s Legislature approved changes in the state’s oil production tax late Saturday that would end a program of the state making cash reimbursements to explorers and developers of new discoveries, legislative leaders said. “Ending the cash payments, which are unsustainable for the state, allows us to move toward a comprehensive fiscal plan for Alaska,” to address revenue shortfalls and budget problems, House Speaker Bryce Edgmon said in a statement. The bill, House Bill 111, makes other changes that indirectly increase…

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The extended state legislative session continued June 15 with no resolution in sight, or to a complex dispute over state oil and gas taxes that is the main holdup to adjournment. There had been hopes for an agreement last Monday, and then Wednesda, but a House-Senate conference committee on House Bill 111, the tax bill, held that day ended with no agreement.

House and Senate leaders were to have met Thursday afternoon to try and resolve disagreements on an adjournment package. House Majority Leader Chris Tuck, D-Anch., told us that if a deal is reached legislators will head back to Juneau Monday, July 10, to vote on the deal. If there’s no deal, just a few leaders will go down for another “technical” session. The hangup seems to be the oil and gas tax bill, HB 111. Both bodies agree the state…

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