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China expects 6% rise in oil imports
(Bloomberg)
Updated: 2005-11-14 09:41
The cost of
extracting oil domestically is $8 to $12 a barrel, and the government may
consider taxing the profits earned on oil sold above $40 a barrel, Lou said on
Saturday, citing a similar plan by some members of the U.S. Congress.
"We
may consider implementing this special tax from next year," Lou said at the
economic conference in Beijing. "The companies are enjoying record profits
because of the oil they extracted from the country."
The tax may crimp
profits at companies like PetroChina, the nation's biggest oil producer, which
in the first half got most of its net income from production from Daqing,
China's biggest oil field, and other sources. PetroChina reported record profit
of 61.6 billion yuan, or $7.6 billion, in the first six months of the year, an
increase of 36 percent from a year earlier.
Lou ruled out imposing a
retail tax on fuels to curb waste. "We can't impose a retail fuel tax now
because the pricing structure in China needs to be first refined and improved,"
he said.
Oil refiners prospered in the third quarter, when U.S. crude
oil futures averaged $63.31 a barrel, up 44 percent from a year earlier. Net
income for the top five publicly traded oil companies, ranked by worldwide
sales, jumped 52 percent, to a combined $33.4 billion. Those five are Exxon
Mobil, BP, Royal Dutch Shell, Chevron and Total.
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