OREANDA-NEWS. January 31, 2011.The Russian Finance Ministry does not see any reason to extend the concessional export duty on crude produced at Rosneft’s Vankor field, deputy finance minister, Sergei Shatalov told journalists. He noted the oilfield is presently breaking even. We recall a decision was previously made to extend the preferential export duty for the Vankor crude until 1 May 2011. In response to the question on whether any other Russian oil companies have asked the Finance Ministry to extend the preferential regime to their oilfield, too, Shatalov said no, but noted that such desired had been expressed unofficially: “There are no explicit discussions with definite numbers. Some ideas do exist, but we have not touched upon them”.

It was reported that the Rosneft president, Eduard Hudainatov had appealed to the government with a request that the concessional duty for the Vankor field be extended for another 3 years. “We believe this tax mode should stay in effect until the field is up and running at the rated capacity of 25 mn tons. This result can be achieved only with duties in force, and we suggest the preferential regime to be kept for another 3 years”, he said. Hudainatov expects the Vankor field to produce some 15 mn tons of crude in 2011, against the earlier planned 17 mn tons. The concessional duty for 22 East Siberian oilfields, including the Vankor, was introduced 1 July 2010.

The duty size equals 45% of the positive difference between the actual cost of oil and the price of USD 50 per bbl. The Vankor field, located in Turukhansk District of Krasnoyarsk Territory, has estimated recoverable reserves of 522.3 mn tons of crude and 106 bcm of has and is run by the Rosneft subsidiary, Vankorneft. Oil produced at the field serves as a primary resource base for the ESPO pipeline. According to Rosneft management, it will not be able to bring the field operations to the rated capacity without the concessional tax regime, and will produce only 13 mn tons of crude annually instead of the scheduled 25 mn tons.