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BP August term price up 15 percent from July
Petroleum News Alaska Staff
BP Amoco’s August term price for Alaska North Slope crude oil is $18.30 a barrel, up $2.44 a barrel (15.38 percent) from July’s term price of $15.86 a barrel.
This is the highest the term price has been since December of 1997 when it hit $18.32 a barrel. The term price bottomed this January at $9.37 a barrel. The average 1999 term price is $13.67 a barrel, compared to a 1998 comparable year-to-date average of $13.28 a barrel and a 1997 comparable year-to-date average of $20.10 a barrel.
BP is the largest producer of ANS crude and the only producer to post prices.
State fiscal year price up from spring forecast The state Department of Revenue Division of Oil and Gas Audit said Aug. 3 that the fiscal year-to-date price for ANS crude is $17.07 a barrel, up $3.50 a barrel from the division’s spring 1999 estimate. The division said that West Coast refinery outages and a decrease in North Slope production have driven the ANS price higher since it hit an all-time low of $9.39 a barrel in December.
The state’s fiscal year begins July 1, but the fiscal year for prices is June 1 through May 31 because prices equate to revenue in the month that follows. West Texas Intermediate tops $20 a barrel The Energy Information Administration of the U.S. Department of Energy said Aug. 4 that West Texas Intermediate crude closed at $20.52 on July 30, retreating from a foray into the $21 per barrel range a day earlier. The EIA said that the dip in price came in response to word from Vienna by Iran’s oil minister that OPEC intends to hold to current production cuts “at least” through March 2000.
The EIA said the current estimate of OPEC contract price is $18.74 a barrel, up $1.47 in just three weeks. The U.S. price at $19.49 is up $1.34 a barrel.
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