Russia: Oil companies ask for new benefits

Falling oil prices and tax maneuver in the oil industry have led to the fact that oil companies have begun to ask the state for the new benefits. And the state, which is expected the decline in the production in the coming years, is ready to agree for it: as the Kommersant has got to know, the Ministry of Energy prepared the first measures to support the industry. The Ministry wants to extend benefits for deposits in Yakutia, which will affect mostly Surgutneftegaz, and for the Caspian Yuri Korchagin field of Lukoil. Gazpromneft, in turn, should receive benefits for the Novoportovskoye fields on the Yamal Peninsula.

As the Kommersant has got to know, the Ministry of Energy on behalf of the Government has developed new measures to stimulate the development of oil fields, and the First Deputy Minister Alexei Teksler sent proposals to the Parliament Building in late March. First of all, these measures are related to the effects of the tax maneuver, the Kommersant’s sources, who are familiar with the text of the document, say. The Ministry of Energy notes that the tax system was changed in other conditions - at an oil price of $100 per barrel and the currency rate of 38 rubles per dollar. The maneuver was to increase the refining margins and accelerate the modernization of refineries, reducing the load on the oil production. Already in 2016 the budget was to capitalize 247 billion rubles due to this. But now the maneuver gives a different effect, according to the Ministry of Energy: with the oil price below $50 per barrel the tax on production grows by $4.3 per barrel instead of a decline by $5.3.