The XI Russian Petroleum and Gas Congress (RPGC 2013). The oil and gas industry expects tax benefits from the State in the sphere of geophysical service

The largest international business event attended by the international as well as Russian leaders of the petroleum and gas industry – the XI Russian Petroleum and Gas Congress (RPGC 2013) was successfully held in Moscow. The Ministry of Energy of Russia is the leading partner of the congress. The leading specialists of the oil and gas industry, representatives of public authorities, largest oil and gas companies and associations, investment and finance organizations of Russia, Europe, the USA and other countries, famous economists and lawyers attended the event. Advocate Maxim Rovinskiy, head of the tax and customs law practice, represented the Firm.

Kirill Molodtsov, Deputy Minister of Energy, spoke at the solemn inauguration of RPGC 2013. He said: “All events, which will take place within the framework of the exposition and the congress, are important and backbone for the forming of the positions of the branch, for understanding the challenges faced by the energy sector of Russia and the world”. K.Molodtsov pointed out that the evaluation of perspectives and directions of the oil and gas industry development is one of the most important tasks, “which must reflect new goals that we want to achieve”.

Of the congress sections was devoted to the development of the tax system in the oil and gas industry. The experts were unanimous that the spending on subsoil exploration, search and prospecting for the hydrocarbons in Russia is much lower than in foreign countries. Therefore, the stagnation in this area during the recent years, which the specialists noticed, leaves no special hopes for a speedy development in that direction anywhere in the near future. The members of the discussion mentioned granting of efficient tax benefits by the State to those companies that do geophysical exploration and works in the territory of the Russian Federation as a way to resolve the problem. This position received the support from Advocate Maxim Rovinskiy, head of the tax and customs law practice of the Law Firm "YUST". He specified that a systematic approach to the development of the normative base in the sphere of taxation of oil and gas branch was required.

The program of the event in more detail is available here (see the English version here).