Oil Tax Break for ND Refinery Bill Gets No Support - KXNet - Bismarck/Minot/Williston/Dickinson

Oil Tax Break for ND Refinery Bill Gets No Support

A bill to give oil companies a tax break if their oil goes to a North Dakota refinery gets no support.

No one showed up to testify in support of the idea.

The bill would exempt oil drillers from paying the 6.5 percent extraction fee if the crude is processed at a refinery in the state.

North Dakota Chamber of Commerce spokesperson, Bill Shalhoob, says North Dakota crude is already going to the refinery in Mandan.

He says this bill is not going to a refinery built any faster.

Bill Shalhoob with the ND Chamber of Commerce says,"The problem is in the environmentalists in building a refinery, not in the tax or profit structure that won't allow a refinery to be built."

The Tesoro Corp. plant in Mandan is the state's sole oil refinery, though at least two others have been proposed in western North Dakota.