Tax Break Unlikely To Be Triggered -- May 13, 2015

Just as I thought: it was unlikely we would have five months of WTI oil being priced below $52.29 (or whatever the "official"/"required" number was) to trigger the tax break for oil companies in North Dakota.

The AP via Bakken.com is reporting:

Unless oil prices take a sudden nosedive, North Dakota’s petroleum industry won’t start reaping the benefits of a tax cut that would decrease state tax collections by about $80 million a month through November.

State Tax commissioner Ryan Rauschenberger and North Dakota Petroleum Council President Ron Ness say the “trigger” tax break for the oil industry likely won’t happen.

If oil prices average below $55.09 a barrel in May, it will mark the fifth straight month that they will lag below the trigger price and the tax break will go into effect. But oil prices have been about $4 above that so far this month.