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Russia raises oil export tax; no implementation date set Moscow wants to raise oil export taxes to increase government revenues and encourage more supplies to the domestic market by The Associated Press
The Russian government has decided to raise the export tax on crude oil from 5 euros to 7.5 euros (from $5.26 to $7.90) per metric ton, a top official said Sept. 9.
Russia had previously upped the tax on Aug. 1, and the government said it wanted a bigger increase. But the plan was temporarily blocked by heavy opposition from the powerful oil lobby.
Moscow wants to raise oil export taxes to encourage more supplies to the domestic market — which is less attractive for producers because prices there are generally lower — and to increase the government’s tax revenues.
Fuel and Energy Minister Viktor Kalyuzhny, who announced the new tax Sept. 9, didn’t say when it would be introduced.
Kalyuzhny also said that Russia would reduce its oil exports in the fourth quarter of 1999 by 2 million metric tons to ensure adequate supplies of fuel to Russian farms and to energy-starved regions in the Far East, the Interfax news agency reported.
Separately, Kalyuzhny said that fighting with Islamic militants in the southern Russian region of Dagestan will not hurt transits of Caspian Sea oil through the republic, Interfax reported.
Government selling Lukoil stock Meanwhile, the government announced plans Sept. 9 to sell 9 percent of its stock in Russia’s largest oil producer, Lukoil, Interfax reported. The government owns 26.6 percent of the company.
The starting price is likely to be set at $240 million, the report said, citing unidentified sources. The buyer would also be required to invest $240 million in the company, it said.
Lukoil has announced a pretax profit of 11.7 billion rubles ($455 million) in the first half of this year, Interfax reported Sept. 9.
Lukoil’s profits in the same period last year were just 1 billion rubles. Coming before the sharp devaluation of the ruble that began in August 1998, the sum amounted to about $167 million at that time.
A statement by the company cited a recent increase in world oil prices, and a higher demand for energy among the factors accounting for the increase in profits. It again criticized the increases of oil export tariffs.
Russia’s natural gas monopoly, Gazprom, also said it made a pretax profit of 32 billion rubles ($1.2 billion) in the first half of 1999, Interfax reported. Gazprom’s profits in the same period last year were 8.1 billion rubles ($1.4 billion at the time).
Gazprom is the world’s biggest natural gas producer, with an output of 554 billion cubic meters in 1998.
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