The increase has created a secondary skirmish in an ongoing dispute with the state over such charges.
Conoco Phillips, BP and Exxon Mobil told the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in Washington, D.C., earlier this month that they will start charging $5.29, $5.10 and $4.95, respectively, to move an Outside-bound barrel of oil from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez.
The current respective rates are $3.78, $4.08 and $3.93 per barrel.
BP owns half the line, while Conoco Phillips has 24 percent and Exxon Mobil holds 20 percent.
Chevron and Koch Pipeline Co., which respectively own 1.4 percent and 3 percent of the line, also asked for increases. Koch, which also owns the Flint Hills Resources refinery in North Pole, will boost rates from $4.41 to $4.75. Chevron's rate goes from $3.92 to $4.63.
"The increase is almost entirely due to lower production volumes predicted for next year," Anchorage-based BP spokesman Daren Beaudo told the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner on Wednesday. "With lower production, the operating costs will be spread over fewer barrels, which increases transportation costs."
Alaska's state government takes a keen interest in the rates, called tariffs, because the state's oil taxes are based on the value of a barrel after transportation costs have been deducted. Slight tariff increases can cut the state's income by millions.
The state filed a brief with FERC last week protesting the Jan. 1 increase. The state says the new rates for shipping outbound oil are obviously unreasonable because they greatly exceed the rates for oil that stays within the state.
"The interstate and intrastate rates from Pump Station No. 1 to the (Valdez Marine Terminal) relate to the transportation of oil over the exact same distance, yet there is up to a $3.33 difference in the rates," the state says in its brief.
The oil companies, in a response filed with FERC Monday, say the state's arguments are flawed. The in-state rates are lower because they've been ordered so by the Regulatory Commission of Alaska, which refused to abide by a 20-year-old agreement between the state administration and the pipeline owners, they say. Under federal law, the RCA ruling isn't reason enough for FERC to block the proposed higher rates, the companies say.
According to the oil companies, the state must prove that the rates are unreasonable before FERC can act to lower them. The state has not done so, they say. In fact, the state will be unable to do so because the rates follow the settlement agreement that guides how tariffs on the trans-Alaska oil pipeline system are calculated, the companies say.
"Our tariffs were calculated consistent with law and the TAPS settlement methodology," Beaudo said. "As permitted (by the methodology) our interstate rates include recovery of operating costs, which includes taxes and depreciation and a return on investment."
Alyeska Pipeline Service Co., which is owned by the oil companies and runs the pipeline, has spent millions on a "strategic reconfiguration" of its operations in recent years.
The state says mismanagement drove up the costs, which therefore should be excluded from the rate.
The state lists several examples: Electrical switch gear for the newly electric-powered Pump Stations 1, 3, 4 and 9 "failed due to its inability to function in cold temperatures;" older-design electric turbines are "likely to be labor intensive to maintain than comparable modern models;" and several storage tanks do not meet standards required by the right-of-way lease the pipeline owners have with the federal government.
Also, the state says, an inexperienced design contractor from Canada, unfamiliar with U.S. codes, caused "substantial delays." Generators and motors were inefficiently sized and exceeded vibration limits, the state says. Fire and gas control equipment at each pump station couldn't operate as designed and had to be replaced, it claims.