Alaska tariff settlement delayed again

Lawyers for Cook Inlet Pipe Line Co. and a small oil and gas producer, Cook Inlet Energy LLC, again have requested more time to try to finalize a tariff settlement.

The two firms, in a joint filing on Oct. 1, told the Regulatory Commission of Alaska they now have a goal of concluding their settlement negotiations by no later than Oct. 15.

CIPL and Cook Inlet Energy have been trying for months to resolve their oil pipeline tariff dispute.

Anchorage-based Cook Inlet Energy complained that CIPL’s 259 percent rate increase, from $4.06 to $14.57 per barrel, was excessive. The RCA allowed the rate hike to take effect at the outset of 2010, but only temporarily and subject to possible refunds.

Texas-based CIPL operates a 20-inch pipeline running 42 miles from Granite Point down the western side of Cook Inlet to the Drift River Oil Terminal.

CIPL attributed its rate increase largely to trouble the erupting Redoubt volcano caused in 2009, idling west Cook Inlet oil production and the pipeline for months.

Lawyers for CIPL and Cook Inlet Energy first notified the RCA on July 26 that they had an “agreement in principle” to settle the tariff dispute.

They had hoped to finalize the deal by Aug. 31, then by Sept. 30

In their Oct. 1 filing, the companies said they “have not yet reached agreement on a few remaining issues.”

—Wesley Loy