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Gazprom Gets Tax Break on Arctic Field

Gazprom moving the Prirazlomnaya platform to Murmansk. The company will use the platform to exploit the Arctic deposit.

Gazprom’s Prirazlomnoye oil field will get a 50 percent duty break on its overseas shipments, while exporters of high-viscosity oil will pay just 10 percent of the current rate, a Finance Ministry official said Friday.

Alexander Sakovich said that under new regulations, Gazprom will pay $173 per ton of oil from Prirazlomnoye, Russia’s first Arctic offshore development, which has been plagued by delays.

Exporters of high-viscosity crude will pay $36.90 per ton starting July 1, he said. The standard oil export duty rate will decrease by 12 percent in July to $369.30 per ton from $419.80 a month earlier.

The government officially announces the export duty at the end of each month.

The duty rate for June will be calculated based on seaborne Urals URL-E crude oil prices between May 15 and June 14, inclusively. The average price during the monitoring stood at $102.65 per barrel, Sakovich said.

Under the 60-66 taxation regime imposed in October, the export rates for refined products, excluding gasoline, will be reduced to $243.70 per ton from $277 in June.

The protective rate imposed on gasoline and naphtha to prevent shortages on the domestic market will decline to $332.40 from $377.80 per ton, Sakovich said.

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