(a) A marine vessel owned by the state shall be maintained and repaired at a shipyard facility located in the state unless the commissioner of the department that operates the marine vessel determines in writing that there is no shipyard facility located in the state that is equipped or qualified to perform the particular maintenance or repair required, or, after taking into consideration the five percent preference under AS 36.30.321(a) and the interport differential, that the proposed cost of the maintenance or repair work is unreasonable. A detailed list of the costs and factors considered in calculating the interport differential must be provided to each person who expresses an interest in submitting a bid to perform maintenance or repair work on a marine vessel owned by the state.

(b) The competitive bid provisions of AS 36.30 do not apply to a contract for the maintenance or repair of a marine vessel owned by the state if the contract is awarded to a shipyard facility in the state.

(c) The commissioner of the department that operates a marine vessel shall adopt regulations establishing the criteria that the department shall use to determine whether the cost of maintenance or repair work at a shipyard facility located in the state is reasonable under (a) of this section. The commissioner of the department that operates a marine vessel shall designate by regulation the designated base port for each vessel operated by the department; however, the designated base port for marine vessels of the Alaska marine highway system is Ketchikan for those vessels primarily serving that portion of the state east of the longitude of Icy Cape and is Seward for those vessels primarily serving the remainder of the state. A vessel's designated base port is the vessel's delivery and redelivery port.

(d) The commissioner of the department that operates a marine vessel shall adopt regulations establishing the criteria that the commissioner shall use in calculating the interport differential under this section. The criteria for calculating the interport differential must include costs incurred from the time that the vessel leaves the vessel's designated base port to enter the shipyard facility until the time that the vessel returns to the designated base port from the shipyard facility.

(e) In this section,

(1) “commissioner of the department that operates the marine vessel” includes the president of the University of Alaska with regard to a vessel operated by the university;

(2) “interport differential” includes all costs related to the performance of the maintenance or repair work of a marine vessel at a shipyard, including travel costs incurred moving the vessel from its designated base port to the shipyard, additional fuel consumption, cost of consumables including lubricants and other engine and deck stores, maintenance costs incurred during running time, cost of crew transfers including airfare between the designated base port and the shipyard, wages in travel status, crew room and board, and other interport costs identified by the commissioner of the department that operates the marine vessel.