Soaring prices may trigger North Dakota oil tax increase

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Unless near-record oil prices dramatically tank, North Dakota’s treasury may start reaping the benefits of a tax increase on drillers that would substantially bump state tax collections. Officials say the price-triggered tax increase would swell state tax collections by $372 million to $4.09 billion for the 2021-23 budget cycle. Lawmakers in 2015 passed a measure that abolished some price-based incentives for the oil industry in exchange for a lower oil tax rate. But the bill also raised the total oil tax if oil prices rise to $90 a barrel for three consecutive months. WTI crude was fetching about $116 a barrel Wednesday (March 9, 2022).