Kazakhstan Cuts Oil Export Duty 31% After Crude Price Slumps

By Nariman Gizitdinov

Dec. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Kazakhstan, the holder of 3.2 percent of the world’s oil according to BP Plc, cut its export duty on crude by 31 percent after commodities’ prices tumbled.

The duty will fall next month to $139.79 a metric ton of oil from $203.80, according to a government order published in the official Kazakhstanskaya Pravda newspaper on Dec. 20. The order comes into effect 30 days after publication.

The rate is linked to global oil prices. The Central Asian country will change the levy should the average price in the reporting month differ by $15 a barrel or more from the previous month, with the exception of months that end a quarter, according to the decree.

Crude oil for February delivery gained as much as $1.08, or 2.6 percent, to $43.44 a barrel in after-hours electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange today. It has declined about 70 percent from a record of $147.27 a barrel on July 11.

To contact the reporter on this story: Nariman Gizitdinov in Almaty, via the Moscow newsroom at ngizitdinov@bloomberg.net