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Tax revamp delays Kazakh round


News wires

Kazakhstan plans to tender new onshore and offshore blocks next year, once a revamp of the energy sector's tax regime comes into effect, Energy & Mineral Resources Ministry official Bolat Uzhkenov said today.

Astana has put tenders for new blocks on hold as work on revising the tax code is completed.

"I think we can expect tenders on oil and gas blocks in 2009," Uzhkenov, a senior ministry official, told Reuters on the sidelines of a mining conference in Almaty.

Uzhkenov said Kazakhstan had 220 oil and gas blocks with proven reserves, but most of those were already licensed.

"About 98% (of such blocks) already have their owners and the ones that are left are small and hard to reach," he said.

The government had earlier said it had six prospective offshore oil blocks that could be offered to foreign investors.

The new tax code, due to be drafted by September, will exclude production sharing agreements, preferred by many foreign companies, as a form of contract.

This means companies entering new contracts will have to pay the oil export duty and will have no protection from future changes in the tax regime.


Monday, 30 June, 2008, 10:31 GMT  | last updated: Monday, 30 June, 2008, 10:31 GMT

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