Petroleum fiscal regime
The petroleum fiscal regime of a country is a set of laws, regulations and agreements which governs the economical benefits derived from
Although
Because each country has distinctive legislation, there are theoretically just as many different fiscal regimes as there are countries in the world with petroleum resources, but the regimes can still be categorized based on their common characteristics.
Motivation for petroleum taxes
Motivation for introducing special taxes on petroleum production is rooted in rent theory
Elements of fiscal regimes
For most countries, a selection of the elements of fees and taxes listed below applies, very few countries, if any, have implemented all elements.
- Bonuses
There are different flavours: signature bonus, discovery bonus, first oil sales, production bonus.[4]
Signature bonus is a onetime fee for the assignment and securing of a license, paid irrespective of economic success for the contractor or licensee. Not all states use bonuses, but the government may charge a minor fee for handling license applications.
- Corporate tax
Corporate tax is the standard company income tax used in many countries, and will similarly apply to oil companies.
- Royalties
- Production shares
The body of a
This is a specific contractual license system arrangement.
- Surface fee
Surface fee is a yearly fee, paid per square kilometre or square mile occupied by the license or leased area. This type of fee is used in Brazil[5] for the exploration phase,[6] and for large production volumes, named "Occupation or Retention Fees".[7] In the Norwegian fiscal regime, it is known as area rental fee and is only paid for "passive licenses", and for exploration areas before a Plan for Development and Operations is submitted to the government.[8] If an oil company has found all or parts of an exploration area of little interest, the area can be relinquished to the state, to save expenses for fees. Other countries enjoying surface fee include Algeria, Angola, Benin, Cameroon, Mauritania.[7]
More country specific elements
- Special petroleum tax
This is a concessionary license system taxation, to tax a high proportion of the resource rent. In the
- Ring Fence Corporation Tax (RFCT)
This is country specific for UK, it is a tax of 30%. A 'ring fence' prevents taxable profits from being reduced by losses that the oil company experiences from other activities.[9]
- Environment fees
According to Norwegian fiscal regime, a CO2 tax is paid per volume liquids and gas burnt or emitted directly to air on the continental shelf. It is classified as a deductible operating cost, hence reducing the other taxes paid to the state.[8]
- State's Direct Financial Interest
An example of a unique implementation of government take is State's Direct Financial Interest (SDFI), the Norwegian state directly owned shares of exploration and production licenses on the Norwegian continental shelf.[10] Although SDFI gives a take effect similar to royalties, it is not classified as royalties by the government, reasoned by that this arrangement also commits the state to contribute in investments with the same proportion of capital as they take out their share of the revenues.[8]
Petroleum licensing systems
Petroleum licensing systems | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Partnerships of companies may apply to either type of licensing system |
Within fiscal regimes where the state owns the mineral rights, the governments have generally selected one of two types of licensing system: a concessionary system or a contractual system.[11]
Concessionary systems
The principle of the
Contractual systems
In contractual systems, the state retains its ownership to hydrocarbon resources. A commercial entity, the contractor company, is being engaged to extract petroleum according to some contract. The countries using this type of systems, often have their state-owned oil company to represent the interests of the state. As of concessionary systems, more than one oil company can make partnerships in the license. Most used variants of contract:
- Production sharing contracts- The contractor receives his compensation in terms of raw materials taken from the ground, oil and / or gas.
- Service contracts - Generally, the contractors are paid in cash for their services, in pure service contacts there are agreed a fixed compensation, while in risk service contracts the contractor accepts to share risks by linking his compensation to the success of the project.
- Buyback contracts - The contracts have an option for the contractor to buy petroleum produced by the project at some defined terms. This type of contract is in use in Iran.[13]
- Technical assistance contracts - This is a type of contract used for development projects on oil fields already in production, the purpose of a project may be to enhance the production facilities, to add on extra infrastructures etc.
References
- ^ a b Gudmestad, O. T. et al (2010) p.199
- ^ Johnson, D. (1994) p.264
- ISBN 978-1-84511-023-9. Retrieved 2013-06-01.
- ^ Mazeel, M. (2010) p.208
- ^ "Brazil official has opened its oil sector to foreign players". Alexander's Gas & Oil Connections. 28 September 1998. Retrieved 31 May 2013.
- ^ "Final Tender Protocol (Edital de Licitações) For the Contracting of Oil and Gas Exploration, Development and Production Activities Brasil Round 6" (PDF). Agência Nacional Do Petróleo (Anp). 2005-06-25. Retrieved 2013-06-01.
- ^ a b "Global oil and gas tax guide 2012" (PDF). Ernst & Young. 2012. Retrieved 2013-06-01.
- ^ a b c d "Taxation of petroleum activities". 006031-990016. Ministry of Finance, Norway. 2007-10-15. Archived from the original on 2013-08-17. Retrieved 2013-06-01.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) - ^ a b "HM Revenue & Customs: A Guide to UK and UK Continental Shelf". HM Revenue & Customs in United Kingdom. 2008-09-16. Retrieved 2013-06-01.
- ^ "SDFI and Petoro annual report 2012 - Front page". Petoro. 2013. Retrieved 2013-06-01.
- ^ Stănescu, Cătălin; Pereira, Eduardo; Koenck, Aaron (2020-03-04). "Petroleum Concessions, Licenses and Leases: "Same-Same but Different"?". LSU Journal of Energy Law and Resources. 8 (1).
- ^ Gudmestad, O. T. et al (2010) p.200-203
- ^ Abbas Ghandi, C.-Y. Cynthia Lin (December 8, 2011), Do Iran’s Buy-Back Service Contracts Lead to Optimal Production? (PDF), retrieved 2013-06-01
Sources
- Johnston, Daniel (1 January 1994). International petroleum fiscal systems and production sharing contracts. PennWell Books. ISBN 978-0-87814-426-6. Retrieved 2013-06-01.
- Muhammed, Mazeel (2 September 2010). Petroleum Fiscal Systems and Contracts. Diplomica Verlag. ISBN 978-3-8366-8852-9. Retrieved 2013-06-01.