BAKU, Azerbaijan, Oct.1
By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:
Norway’s Equinor paid $4.5 billion in taxes, fees, bonuses and other payments to host governments in 2020 in respect of extractive activities, Trend reports with reference to the company.
“While the largest payment of $2.7 billion was in Norway, almost a third of the contribution through taxes was in territories classified as lower or upper middle income. Excluding Norway, our global contribution for 2020 totalled $1.8 billion. Lower and upper middle income are defined as countries with a GNI per capita of $1,036 to $4,045, and $4,046 to $12,535, respectively. Our largest contributions outside Norway were in Angola, Azerbaijan, and Nigeria where we paid $1.4 billion in taxes and other payments, representing 30 percent of our total global contribution. These payments to governments are largely driven by corporate income tax; however, this is not always the case and we contribute to governments and local authorities through many other forms of payment,” said the company.
Equinor paid $207 million in royalty payments; its largest contributions were in Brazil and the United States.
“We paid $131 million in government fees and bonuses; two of our largest contributions were in Norway and Nigeria. We paid $1.1 billion in government entitlements; over 90 percent of these contributions were paid to governments and local authorities in Algeria, Angola, Nigeria and Azerbaijan. In accordance with Norwegian regulation, Equinor prepares annually a consolidated report on payments to governments for activities related to exploration, prospecting, discovery, development, and extraction of oil and natural gas (‘extractive activities’).”
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