On 18 May 2018, the President approved the Decree No. 7/18 which outlined new legislation for the development of marginal fields, the creation of a regulatory body for fuel products and natural gas rights.
For marginal fields, which the law defines as a discovery with reserves of less than 300 million barrels, the petroleum production tax has been reduced from the usual 20 percent to 10 percent, while the mineral oil tax has been reduced from 50 percent to 25 percent.
Concerning natural gas, a new separate tax regime has been introduced for oil companies active in the exploration and production of natural gas. The new natural gas regime provides for a petroleum production tax rate of 5% and a petroleum income tax rate of 25%. For non-associated gas certified to a field of less than 2 TCF (trillion cubic feet), the applicable rate of excise duty on petroleum income tax rate. In addition, natural gas activities are exempt from petroleum transaction tax.
