Lukoil battles tax setback with boost in profits

摘要

LUKOIL is holding out for new Russian tax incentives after the cancellation of privileges last year made two of its oil projects in the country unprofitable. The privately held player -which posted a profit in this year's first quarter - opted to keep the affected unconventional oil projects running at full steam in the period despite the withdrawal of a tax scheme that was devised to make such expensive projects commercially competitive. Output at two projects in the north of the country - Yareg-skoye and Usinskoye, targeting high viscosity heavy oil -remained almost unchanged at 95,000 barrels per day between January and March as against the average rate last year.