Alaska and Norway Oil Officials Meet to Discuss Differences
06. Nov, 2011
Ola Borten Moe
In Anchorage at the Alaska World Affairs Council meeting, Norway’s Minister of Petroleum and Energy, Ola Borten Moe made it clear that having a stable tax regime was critical for Norway to capitalize on its offshore oil and gas resources. Taxation structure certainty is an essential driver for oil development businesses to plan investments. The State of Alaska is in debate of whether reducing oil taxes would lead to more energy development in Alaska. One side argues that high taxes hinder energy investment and development. Norway’s tax on oil and gas companies is slightly higher than Alaska’s.
North Slope Crude – State Tax Rate is 57%, plus U.S. Federal Tax of 15% = 72%
Norway’s taxes 78% on oil and gas firm profits; however, Norway offers plentiful deductions on investments.
Recently, Norway discovered a very large oil field and has had around 150 oil and gas discoveries since 2000. This year Statoil ASA made two offshore discoveries of more than 250 million barrels of oil. Experts believe that 60% of Norway’s oil reserves are still underground. Norway does have a few advantages; one is that its offshore oil fields are closer to major markets such as continental Europe, lowering transportation costs, thus increasing profitability.
According to Reuters, “Angola’s oil industry is booming as money pours in after the end of three decades of civil war, and officials say output could increase by as much as two-thirds over the next five years. Buoyed by a scramble for energy and raw materials by China and other emerging nations, oil companies are spending tens of billions of dollars drilling oil and gas wells deep below the Atlantic many miles off the African coast. Production capacity has increased steadily over the last two years and oil analysts say Angola could now comfortably pump at least 2 million barrels per day (bpd) and is increasingly only held back by political constraints. Angola is a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), holding the presidency of the 12-member grouping this year, and has been limiting output with other OPEC states to help stabilize oil prices in the wake of the global economic crisis. But dozens of new Angolan oilfields will come on stream between 2011 and 2015 and oil analysts expect output to increase steadily to between 2.5 and 3.0 million over this period. 
