BP Owes $379 Million in Back Taxes

BP may be advertising a "beyond petroleum" message, but Alaska has made sure the oil giant is not beyond paying. Taxes, that is.

BP agreed to pay a whopping $379 million in back taxes owed to Alaska for extracting oil from North America's largest oil field, Prudhoe Bay, from 2000-2002.

It's only the latest conflict between Alaska and its oil companies to make news. State and federal elected leaders have been under investigation for alleged inappropriate money ties to oil companies. Alaska is considering hiking oil levies to 25% of profits. And a state judge ruled last month that BP and other oil companies may lose their 30-year-old leases for some oil and gas fields because they failed to develop natural gas reserves at a time when demand and prices were soaring.

Democrats running for president have vowed to increase oil levies on federally owned lands, while preventing oil exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Republicans, meanwhile, mainly support increased domestic oil and gas exploration, including in ANWR.

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