BP to pay taxes in Alaska dispute

Oil giant BP agreed to pay $379 million in back taxes after settling a dispute with the state of Alaska, Gov. Sarah Palin said.

BP, which runs the Prudhoe Bay oil field in Alaska, and the state resolved a dispute over outstanding income taxes for 2000 through 2002, Palin said in a statement.

Alaskan officials have been raising taxes on oil producers and pressuring them to develop dormant natural gas fields as demand and prices have soared.

BP may have its lease for an Alaskan oil-and-gas field revoked because it and other oil firms took too long to develop the area, a judge said last month.