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Central Asia Economy & Foreign Trade Finance & Taxes Issue

Kazakhstan to Raise Export Duties on Oil Products

Kazakhstan’s government has raised export duties on petroleum products, the national press reports.

The decree, signed by Prime Minister Karim Massimov on September 5, was published in the national press last Saturday, September 17. The new export duty rates will come into force from September 27.

According to the decree, the new export duty rate for light petroleum products will be US$143.54 per ton (the current rate is US$114.05 per ton), with the rate for heavy petroleum products standing at US$95.69 per ton (the current rate is US$76.03 per ton).

Export duties on crude oil, which have been reintroduced last year at US$20 per ton, before doubling the tariff to US$40 from January 1, 2011, will remain at the same level.

The cabinet expects to raise KZT421.40 billion (around US$2.8 billion) from introducing the new exports duty by the end of the 2011, the Ministry of Finance has said.

The state budget revenues paid in the form of export duty on crude oil made up US$1.67 billion for the first half of 2011, Vice Finance Minister Ruslan Dalenov wrote in his Twitter account July 22.

Energy-rich Kazakhstan had introduced the export duty on crude in May 2008 at the height of the Global Financial Crisis, but reduced them to zero in January 2009 after crude prices plunged.

Kazakhstan, Central Asia’s largest economy, has doubled crude output over the past decade to become the second-biggest oil producer in the former Soviet Union after Russia. It produced 79.5 million tons of oil and gas condensate in 2010, 4.2 percent up against 2009.

Foreign oil companies control a significant proportion of crude production in Kazakhstan, which holds slightly more than 3 percent of the world’s recoverable oil reserves.

The Chevron-led Tengizchevroil venture is the country’s largest oil producer, while Chinese companies control nearly a quarter of output.

Currently Kazakhstan is facing fuel shortages and fuel price hikes, tengerinews.kz reports. The Oil and Gas Ministry along with the State Agency for Monopolies Control have repeatedly stated that measures will be taken to stabilize the fuel market.

According to the Oil and Gas Ministry estimation, the national oil production output in 2011 will make up 81 million tons, growing to 83 million tons in 2012-2013, to 85 million tons in 2014 and to 95 million tons by 2015.

According to the stats, crude and condensed gas production output for the first seven months of 2011 totaled 46.6 million tons.

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