Kazakhstan Said Planning to Double Oil Export Tax Next Year

Kazakhstan plans to double its oil export tax next year to $40 a metric ton to raise revenue, said two state officials, who declined to be identified before a decision is made public.

The cabinet may decide on the measure while considering the budget in Astana as early as tomorrow and expects the tax to raise 421 billion tenge ($2.9 billion) for the government next year, said one of the officials.

Kazakhstan, the largest oil producer in Central Asia, holds about 3 percent of the world’s proven oil reserves, according to BP Plc data. The country began taxing crude exports in May 2008 to raise cash as global credit markets tightened.

The export duty, which had been cut to zero in January 2009, was raised to $20 a ton this month for about 40 producers and included Chevron Corp.’s TengizChevroil Llp venture, the country’s biggest oil exporter, for the first time since the tax was introduced.

To contact the reporters on this story: Nariman Gizitdinov in Almaty at ngizitdinov@bloomberg.net.

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