The Russian energy and finance ministries agreed with oil companies to start cutting the export duty on crude gradually, to bring it from the current 30 percent to zero over the next six years, government sources told Reuters. The duty will be cut by 5 percent annually over the period, as part of a wider tax reform that seeks to replace the export duties and mineral resources extraction taxes with a single tax based on the profits that oil companies in Russia make. Currently, the oil export duty is tied to oil prices, and calculations for May saw it 6 percent higher than in April, at US$118.5 per ton of oil, based on a price of US$65.80 per barrel. The idea of phasing out the export duties is not new. Last year, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said the end of the duty will come no earlier than 2022-2025. Now, […]