A new adjustment to Russian oil and gas taxation will benefit oil companies that export most of their crude oil and high-grade oil products but hurt domestically focused producers, refiners, and petrochemical manufacturers, says Moody’s Investors Service . The change seeks to redistribute Russia’s tax burden between export and domestic sales by cutting nearly 50% of export duties on crude and oil products over 3 years while increasing the mineral extraction tax by factors of 1.7 for oil and 6.5 for gas condensate, Moody’s reports in a Dec. 1 comment. The law, which was signed Nov. 25 and starts taking effect Jan. 1, also increases the excise on high-grade fuels and imposes a 22% tax on Gazprom’s gas sales to Turkey through the Blue Stream pipeline . The tax burden on oil exporters will fall 2-3%, the credit analyst says. Rosneft , Lukoil , and […]