Kazakhstan to slash export duties

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ASTANA, Kazakhstan, Nov. 10 (UPI) -- The government of Kazakhstan said Monday it plans to cut its crude oil export duties by 45 percent in an effort to reduce the impact of falling prices.

The global financial crisis has trickled over to the energy markets as crude was trading at roughly 40 percent below its July highs of $147 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

"The Ministry of Industry and Trade has already drawn up draft regulations, which propose cutting export duty on crude oil to $139 a ton and export duty on fuel oil ... from $130 to $95 per ton," said Energy Minister Sauat Mynbayev in the Russian RIA Novosti news agency.

Kazakhstan and several international oil majors reached an agreement in October to develop the Kashagan oil field in the Caspian Sea, which is expected to hold some 12.5 billion barrels of oil.

Last week, Kazakhstan said it would transport some 120 million barrels of oil per year through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, marking the first time oil from outside Azerbaijan will ship through the artery.

Mynbayev did not reveal when the cuts in the export duty would commence.