Kazakh Deputy Finance Minister Daulet Yergozhin said Monday that Karachaganak Petroleum Operating started paying newly introduced export duty on crude oil as Tengizchevroil might be forced to pay the duty too, Interfax news agency reported.
Yergozhin said KPO, the developer of one of Kazakhstan's largest oil and gas condensate fields, had already paid around 10 billion tenge ($83.2 million) as export duty in June. Yergozhin said KPO had disagreed that it had to pay the duty which was set at $109.91 for a ton, the Interfax report said.
Yergozhin said the government is currently studying whether Chevron Corp.-led (CVX) Tengizchevroil had to pay the duty too. TCO operates the country's largest producing oil field Tengiz in western Kazakhstan.
The Kazakh government earlier said the country's largest oil and gas producers such as Tengizchevroil and KPO, a joint venture between the U.K.'s BG Group (BG.LN), Italy's Eni SpA (E), Chevron Corp., and Russia's Lukoil (LKOH.RS), would be exempt from the duty due to tax stability in their contracts.
Interfax said KPO produced 11.6 million metric tons of oil in 2007.