RCA approves Exxon TAPS increase
State regulators are allowing an ExxonMobil pipeline subsidiary to increase its shipping rates to local markets along the trans-Alaska oil pipeline on a refundable basis.
Exxon will now charge $3.87 to ship a barrel of oil from the North Slope to North Pole and as much as $6.10 per barrel to ship to Valdez, depending on the destination. (There are two off-take points in Valdez: the PetroStar refinery and the Valdez Marine Terminal.) That represents a roughly 26 percent increase over Exxon’s existing rates of $3.07 per barrel to North Pole, and about $4.83 per barrel to ship to points in Valdez.
With the temporary approval, the Regulatory Commission of Alaska is now considering 16 separate rate cases from four of the five companies that own shares of the pipeline.
Depending on the outcome of those cases, the owners could be forced to refund some of the higher tariffs collected in recent years, or the higher rates could become permanent.
—Eric Lidji
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