Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin spoke at SPIEF 2023

The head of Rosneft, Igor Sechin, strongly opposed the increase in the tax burden on the oil industry in order to make up for the shortfall in oil and gas budget revenues in 2023. Presenting a report entitled “Sodom and Gomorrah in the energy market” at SPIEF 2023, Igor Sechin blamed the decline in budget revenues on the poor results of Gazprom, which is not “a reason to transfer the tax burden to the oil industry.” Also, Rosneft again raised the issue of liberalizing gas exports and reducing electricity tariffs.

The head of Rosneft, Igor Sechin, blamed the fall in oil and gas budget revenues in 2023 on Gazprom. He made the corresponding statement as part of his speech at SPIEF-2023. “The thesis about the loss of oil and gas revenues, which is heard from our financial authorities, seems incorrect, since it was gas revenues that “fell out”, this should be treated with understanding, but this is not a reason to transfer the tax burden to the oil industry,” Igor Sechin said.

According to the plans of the Ministry of Finance, from September 1, it is proposed to reduce payments on the damper, and lower the Urals discount to Brent in the MET formula to $20 per barrel. Besides, as reported by “b”the ministry proposes to postpone the promised tax deduction for depleted deposits included in the AIT perimeter for three years.

After the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine, Gazprom’s gas exports to Europe dropped sharply, which led to a significant drop in export earnings. Last year, the authorities already increased the mineral extraction tax for Gazprom both for 2022 and for 2023-2025. In addition, significant revenues from the export duty on gas were included in the budget, as the average gas prices in Europe in 2023 were expected to exceed $600 per 1,000 cubic meters. However, in reality, gas prices and volumes of its exports to Europe fell, which led to a drop in budget revenues.

This year, the head of Rosneft called his report “Sodom and Gomorrah in the energy market: God’s punishment or organized chaos? Save who can.”

The main part of it was again devoted to criticism of “Western civilization” and specifically the United States, as well as the “green transition”.

Also, the head of Rosneft once again touched upon the topic of liberalization of gas exports. In his opinion, the construction of new gas pipelines to the east opens up the possibility of developing the vast resources of Eastern Siberia, which exceed 4 trillion rubles. from independent manufacturers. In this case, free capacities can be used for accelerated gasification, Igor Sechin believes. So, Rosneft already offered at the end of last year, according to Kommersantto allow the supply of gas from its fields in the Krasnoyarsk Territory and the Irkutsk Region to the projected Gazprom export gas pipeline Power of Siberia-2.

In addition, Igor Sechin complained about the increase in electricity tariffs for industry. Over the past ten years, the increase in electricity prices has exceeded 200%, he noted. “The increase in installed capacity over the same period exceeded the growth in demand twice, which led to a decrease in the installed capacity utilization factor. However, all generation, including unclaimed and inefficient ones, continues to receive payment for capacity,” the head of Rosneft said. “It seems extremely important to exclude contracts for the supply of capacity for projects implemented with the involvement of budgetary funds.”

Dmitry Kozlov