Clock Continues To Tick -- Two-Year Tax Break For North Dakota Oil Producers -- April 3, 2015

Updates

May 10, 2015: with WTI solidly at $60 for past few days, it's hard to imagine coming in under $52.29 for the month of May, but maybe there's something in the fine print I don't understand.  

Original Post

Reuters is reporting:

The clock kept ticking in March on a potential $5.3 billion, two-year tax break for North Dakota's oil industry after a state-calculated average of the month's crude price fell below $52.59 per barrel.

The state waives its 6.5 percent oil extraction tax if the monthly price of benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude at the Cushing, Oklahoma, transport hub falls below an inflation-adjusted limit, set at $52.59 per barrel for 2015, for five consecutive months.

For March, the average calculated price was $47.76 per barrel, according to data from the North Dakota tax commissioner's office. The March average was a drop from the February average of $50.86 per barrel.

The tax break kicks in if the average monthly price is below that $52.59 level for the next two months. If it is off even one month, the clock resets. The tax returns if the average price exceeds that level for a subsequent five consecutive months.

The countdown has officially entered its fourth (?) month out of a possible five.