Energy Blast – Oct 12, 2010

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is hinting at tax breaks for gas, offshore and LNG as part of efforts to ramp up production to 2030.  Alexei Miller had previously warned that a proposed mineral extraction tax for gas would cost Gazprom $6.7 billion over the next three years.  In the meantime, Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Shatalov says that Novatek is the only project that is being considered for exemption from mineral extraction tax at the moment.  Similar breaks could also be on the cards for Rosneft, to the tune of $4 billion a year, as well as reduced crude oil duties, but the Energy Ministry may increase duties on oil products from 2012 ‘to shift the tax burden from oil production to oil refining‘.  On Rosatom’s potential in the European nuclear market: ‘We never stopped building, even after Chernobyl.‘