OREANDA-NEWS. January 19, 2010. The Russian government has taken steps to resolve inconsistencies in previously adopted decrees and regulations related to the export duties on crude oil produced from selected fields in eastern Siberia, reported the press-centre of OTKRITIE Financial Corporation.

In particular, the government introduced new regulations with a corrected customs code to be used for the handling of crude oil exports. The list of eastern Siberian fields that are exempted from export duties was expanded to include 9 more fields, in addition to 13 original ones. As a result, starting from 19 January, the export duty exemption will be applied to 22 government-picked oil fields. The new fields added to the list are controlled by the Irkutsk Oil Company (privately owned), TNK-BP, Surgutneftegaz, Gazprom and Gazprom neft.

View: Since the expansion of the list of eastern Siberian fields eligible for the export duty exemption has been previously discussed in the press, the news brought little surprise to the market. It is positive, however, that oil companies will now be able to claim the duty exemption. We maintain our view that Rosneft, TNK-BP and Surgutneftegaz will be the key short-term beneficiaries of the export duty exemption. At the same time, taking into account that a number of fields subject for the duty exemption are not prepared for development, we conclude that the exemption is likely to stay in place for several years, that is, the time needed to bring those fields into operation.