OAO Gazprom Neft (SIBN.RS) Chief Executive Alexander Dyukov has called for tax breaks in the Russian oil sector to sustain production growth, the Interfax news agency reported Wednesday.
"Reducing the tax burden will make it possible to attain production growth of 3% to 4% a year," Dyukov said. "Naturally, it will take time. But production will decline without those changes."
Gazprom Neft is Russia's fifth largest crude oil producer by volume.
For the first time since 1999, Russian oil companies reported a decline in crude output growth in the first quarter of this year.
"Already we are seeing fields that cannot be developed because the return on investment is negative," Dyukov said.
Dyukov also supports the idea of introducing excise taxes on fuel, differentiated on a value-added basis, and changes to the method for setting export duties on refined products, Interfax said.
In March Rosneft (ROSN.RS) proposed fixing the export duty on light oil products at 60% of the export duty on crude oil.