Russia plans to test a new tax regime on one of its most depleted but still huge oilfields as the world's top producer looks for ways to boost output after its deal with Opec on production cuts expires.
The finance ministry is proposing to try out a profit-based tax at Rosneft's Samotlor oilfield, where annual production was 18 million tonnes (360,000 barrels per day), Alexei Sazanov, head of the ministry's tax unit, told Reuters.
Samotlor, a field which at one point was responsible over a quarter of Soviet Union's production, has become one of the most depleted with extraction also affected by heavy water levels.
By targeting profit, the levy is more flexible than the current taxation system and increases only as production grows, which the ministry hopes will encourage investment in the sector, leading in turn, to higher production.
Currently Russia taxes its oil industry in two main ways - an oil export duty and a mineral extraction tax (MET), linked to the oil price. Some fields enjoy export duty and MET tax breaks.
"If Rosneft needs (tax) support for watered, mature fields, we think that new individual tax breaks in form of MET should not be introduced but (we) rather move with a universal tax, or profit-based tax," Sazanov said.
The Samotlor field in Western Siberia is still one of the world's largest - it produced over 3 million bpd alone at its peak in the 1980s. Rosneft is actively drilling at the field trying to stabilise falling output.
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