As previously reported, Gazprom has long worked for a reduced tax regime at its offshore projects and earlier this year managed to get the oil export tax for the Prirazlomnoye project cut by 50 percent compared with standard rates. However, the export tax reduction is not enough, Gazprom argues. According to company leader Aleksei Miller, the project, the first Russian offshore Arctic oil field in operation, should get more benefits.
The additional tax cuts, requested by Miller might be worth up to $2.4 billion, RBC Daily reports.
Gazprom wants the Prirazlomnoye project to be included in the new tax regime for offshore energy projects currently under elaboration in federal ministries. The new beneficial regulations, which will include lower taxes as well as customs tariffs, are meant to apply for projects launched after 1 January 2016. However, Aleksei Miller argues that also project launced before 2016 should be included in the regulations.
Meanwhile, Gazprom’s Prirazlomnoye production platform is lying idle in the ice cold and remote Pechora Sea. As previously reported, the platform, which was moved to the site already in August 2011, will not start production before in late 2013.
It is the Ministry of Finance, the Minstry of Energy and the Ministry Economic Development which are currently involved in the drafting of the new tax regime, which originally was to be presented before 1 October. According to RBC, the three ministries disagree on a number of points in the document.
The new regime is expected to include several levels of complexity according to which the taxes will be adjusted.
