OREANDA-NEWS. September 14, 2010. The Russian Ministry for Energy has submitted suggestions on export duty preferences for crude produced at Caspian oilfields to the government committee, chaired by the first vice-PM, Victor Zubkov, energy minister, Sergei Shmatko said. “We have devised a draft decree, the Finance Ministry approved it, and we submitted it to Zubkov’s committee”. The minister did name the exact dates when the preferences should come in force, but said it was likely to happen in the immediate future.

“The exemption mechanism is to a large degree the same that is used in Eastern Siberia. It is a done deal, and we should bring it to life in the near future”, Shmatko said, but underlined that the duty rate would be above zero.

We recall that the president of LUKOIL, Vagit Alikperov appealed to Prime Minister Putin at meeting in Astrakhan held April 2010, with a request that the export duty on crude produced at Caspian oilfields be zeroed. In explanation of his position, he said that oil production in the Northern Caspian was grossly unprofitable, as it was a new oil province, and the company had to build infrastructure from scratch.