- 8 -
$200 per year. Petitioner also maintained business licenses, and
submitted written proposals to provide drilling services to oil
and construction companies during the relevant period. With the
exception of written proposals in 1992 and 1993, petitioner did
not retain written records of his efforts to find work for his
drilling operation.
While petitioner used the drill rig to drill some holes on
his own property,7 he has never been able to obtain contracts to
use the drill rig commercially for clients. Petitioner
attributes his inability to obtain drilling business to a general
depression in the level of economic activity in Alaska during
this period, due to the decline in oil prices. Indeed, oil
prices did decline sharply in 1986, and thereafter, through 1991,
remained at substantially lower levels than they were at in 1984
and 1985.8
7The record does not disclose the nature of petitioner's
property, which he characterizes as "commercial", and whether
petitioner's drilling on the property was merely to test
operative capabilities of petitioner's equipment or to benefit
the property.
8Neither party asked the Court to take judicial notice of
the decrease in oil prices or general economic activity that
began in 1985. However, on brief and at trial, both parties
referred to a decline in oil prices during the relevant period
and appear to agree that it had a general depressing effect on
the levels of construction and general economic activity in
Alaska. Crude oil price summaries for the relevant periods are
available, and we take judicial notice of them, under Fed. R.
Evid. 201(a).
(continued...)
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