Kazakhstan, central Asia's biggest energy producer, seeks to amend tax provisions for oil companies under production-sharing agreements to reflect current rates, according to an Oil Ministry official, Bloomberg reported.
"We are working with the Finance Ministry to cancel tax stability in all production sharing agreements," Oil & Gas Ministry Secretary Kanatbek Safinov said today in an interview in Almaty, without giving further details.
Kazakhstan, which holds 3 percent of the world's oil reserves according to BP Plc, signed agreements in the 1990s that formed ventures such as Chevron Corp (CVX).-led TengizChevroil LLP and Karachaganak Petroleum Operating BV, led by BG Plc and Eni SpA (ENI), that had favorable tax rates. In August, the country began levying export duties on crude to boost its share of revenue from its most valuable export, doubling the levy to $40 a metric ton ($5.46 a barrel) at the start of this year.
Kazakhstan introduced in 2009 a new tax code that included a mineral extraction duty and excessive profit tax for oil companies. President Nursultan Nazarbayev ordered the government in January last year to make all tax amendments applicable to all producers. Nazarbayev, 70, last month called snap elections for April and scrapped a referendum on extending his 22-year rule.
Kazakhstan would boost revenue from companies including the Karachaganak venture if it was paying under current tax legislation, Safinov said.