Gabon to scrap corporate tax, launches offshore oil exploration round (updated)

TotalEnergies EP Gabon

07/11/2018 09:12

(Adds tax, offshore details)
    CAPE TOWN, Nov 7 (Reuters) - Gabon plans to scrap a 35
percent corporate tax on energy companies as part of a revised
hydrocarbons law and has launched a new offshore oil and gas
exploration licensing round for 34 blocks, Oil Minister Pascal
Ambouroue said on Wednesday.
    In March, Gabon, a member of the Organization of the
Petroleum Exporting Countries, said it planned to revise its
hydrocarbons code, under which the state holds a minimum 20
percent stake in oil projects, in a bid to attract new
investment.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N1R46IO
    "The purpose is to attract more and more investors,"
Ambouroue told a media briefing at the Africa Oil Week
conference in Cape Town in South Africa.
    Companies exploring offshore Gabon include Petronas, Noble
Energy  NBL.N , ENI  ENI.MI , Total  EGAB.PA  and Shell
 RDSa.AS .
    Addressing a seminar on the new fiscal terms replacing the
2014 petroleum code, a senior government official said besides
scrapping the corporate tax, the new code set minimum royalty
rates of 7 percent for oil and 4 percent for gas in conventional
offshore zones, decreasing further to 5 percent for oil and 2
percent for gas in deep and ultra-deep waters.
    Income tax would be included in a "state profit share" and
the formula for the profit split meant the state's first tranche
could not be lower than 50 percent for oil and 50 percent for
gas in conventional offshore, and 45 percent for both
hydrocarbons in deeper blocks.
    "The new hydrocarbon code is adopted for oil price
fluctuations, gives flexibility to different plays and field
sizes ... and the objective is to attract international oil
companies," said Bernardin Assoumou, the director general of
hydrocarbons.
    State participation is 15 percent once a discovery has been
made, he added.  
    Ambouroue said the new code would likely become law before
the end of December.
    Gabon, a tropical nation famed for its rain forests and
wildlife, is a mid-tier African oil producer, churning out about
200,000 barrels of oil per day.
    "Marginal fields development by small independents sustain
production now and production will decline below 150,000 barrels
a day if nothing is done," said Assoumou.

 (Reporting by Wendell Roelf and Ed Stoddard; editing by Louise
Heavens and David Evans)
 ((wendell.roelf@thomsonreuters.com; +27 21 461 3523;))