News 2017
February 2017Investments
The amount of investments to Kazakhstan’s oil and gas sector decreased by one third over the past three years, said Kanat Bozumbayev, Minister of Energy of Kazakhstan. "In the past three years, the downturn in the oil and gas industry reduced the amount of investments to the sector from 18 bln USD in 2013 to 12 bln USD in 2016," said Mr. Bozumbayev, speaking at an extended meeting of the Ministry of Energy.
According to the Minister, it is planned to ensure the growth of investments to the oil and gas sector in Kazakhstan in the coming years, through the development of innovations; moreover, the systematic measures are provided in the Draft Code “On Subsoils” and in the Tax Code to stimulate the investments. In particular, the Draft Code “On Subsoils” provides simplified procedure for getting the right for subsoil use, as well as introduction of the international reserve reporting system.
The Ministry of Energy will continue its work on removing administrative barriers: the list of basic project documents will be shorten, some permissions will be excluded, the terms and procedures for the document review will be reduced. At the exploration phase, it is planned to cancel a number of charges. "For the deep operations and offshore projects, it is planned to cancel the special payments of subsoil users and to make a transition to the taxation, based on the financial results.
The new exploration contracts will be free from obligations, regarding training, research and developmental works, charges for the social development of the regions and historical costs. All these types of charges should be applied only at the stage of production. “There should be no obligations during the exploration phase," said Mr. Bozumbaev.