ANS price higher than estimated, production lower

Petroleum News Alaska Staff

The Alaska Department of Revenue's Tax Division said Feb. 10 that the fiscal year-to-date average price for Alaska North Slope crude sold on the West Coast (June 1 through the present) is $27.50 per barrel, $1.56 more than the division's fiscal year-end estimate. The estimate in Revenue's "Fall 2002 Revenue Sources Book" was $25.94 a barrel for fiscal year 2003, increased from the spring 2002 projection of $20.50 a barrel.

For the most recent complete month, January, ANS crude averaged $31.89 a barrel on the West Coast, Revenue said, and reached $34.52 a barrel Feb. 7. While ANS crude oil prices are higher than forecast, ANS crude oil production is lower, with a fiscal year-to-date 2003 average of 0.980 million barrels a day, 1,400 barrels per day lower than the 0.994 million barrel a day estimate for FY 2003.

Revenue also publishes a "gas prevailing value" for Cook Inlet — the weighted average price of significant sales of gas to publicly regulated utilities in the Cook Inlet. The price for the first quarter of 2003 is $2.28 per thousand cubic feet, down from the previous four quarters when the prevailing value ranged from $2.348 to $2.566 per thousand cubic feet.