Introducing duties of Blue Stream gas requires agreement changes with Turkey's concurrence - source
MOSCOW. June 14 (Interfax) - Introducing export duties on gas transport to Turkey via the Blue Stream pipeline requires changes to an intergovernmental Russo-Turkish agreement on gas supply, a source at Russia's Energy Ministry told Interfax.
"Introducing duties should meet an agreement on the intergovernmental level with Turkey," the source.
According to the current agreement, Russian gas delivered to Turkey through Blue Stream is not levied with export duties.
The source also said that the Russian government was currently discussing the idea of bringing it duties for this gas as part of efforts to boost budget revenue from the gas sector. "This issue is under review," he said, not comment on what level this has reached.
It was earlier reported that the Russian Finance Ministry proposed to boost the NRET (natural resources extraction tax) for Gazprom 110% effective in 2012 to 536 rubles per to 1,000 cubic meters of gas. This is necessary in order to net 150 billion in budget revenue for next year.
Gazprom and the Energy Ministry said that this amount of revenue would not only be supported by an increase for the NRET but also other revenue sources. For instance, one proposal was increasing the duty on gas supplied via Blue Stream.
The company also said that gas for export would increase, which would mean an increase in payments on duties.
The Energy Ministry said that retaining the full export duty rate for the Talakanskoye field would bring in 37.5 billion rubles for the budget in 2012, which would help reduce demands for tax revenue from the gas sector.
Gazprom supplied 10 billion cubic meters of gas via Blue Stream in 2009. Supplies decreased to 8 bcm in 2010.