(a) If a person qualified for a resource inducement under AS 43.90.300 agrees under (c) of this section, the person is entitled to an annual exemption from the state's gas production tax in an amount equal to the difference between the amount of the person's gas production tax obligation calculated under the gas production tax in effect during that tax year and the amount of the person's gas production tax obligation calculated under the gas production tax in effect at the start of the first binding open season held under this chapter. If the difference is less than zero, the gas production tax exemption is zero.

(b) The exemption under this section may be applied within 10 years immediately following commencement of commercial operations and only applied to production taxes that are levied on North Slope gas shipped through firm transportation capacity the person acquired during the first binding open season or shipped in the firm transportation capacity described in a voucher received by the gas producer under AS 43.90.330.

(c) The person claiming the exemption under this section shall agree that the person, and the person's affiliates, successors, assigns, and agents, will not protest or appeal a filing by the licensee to roll in mainline expansion costs up to the level that the licensee is required to propose and support under AS 43.90.130(7) if the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission does not have a rebuttable presumption in effect that rolled-in treatment applies to the cost of the expansion of the project. The agreement required under this subsection may not preclude the person, or the person's affiliates, successors, assigns, and agents, from protesting a filing to roll in mainline expansion costs that the licensee is not required to propose and support under AS 43.90.130(7).

(d) In this section, “gas production tax” means the tax levied on the production of gas under AS 43.55.