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Update on Oil Spill Tax Expiration/Reauthorization

Update on Oil Spill Tax Expiration/Reauthorization

Expiration of the OSLT: The OSLT expired on December 31, 2017. This means that refiners are no longer required to pay 9 cents per barrel OSLT on crude oil at the refinery gate. This results in a miniscule price adjustment in the cost of the fuel or not, depending on whether the cost savings is passed downstream. Many terminals are notifying customers that they are making no cost adjustment because they expect the OSLT will be reauthorized retroactively by Congress sometime in late January 2018. Some terminals are passing the cost savings down while others don’t break out the OSLT to begin with and have nothing to report.

Reauthorization of the OSLT: A one-year OSLT reauthorization (effective January 1, 2018) is included in the tax extenders package that the Senate Finance Committee introduced late last year. It is likely that Congress will pass the tax extenders bill later this month as part of the federal government spending bill.
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