Polish Hydrocarbon Tax in 2015?

The Polish government will not rush into a new oil and gas taxation regime, although the Ministry of Finance has indicated that the first draft of new hydrocarbon regulations will be ready in Q2 2012 in order to facilitate investment decisions.

In an interview with the Polish Press Agency, the deputy minister Maciej Grabowski pointed out to the difference between submitting and putting this law into effect.

 "New hydrocarbon extraction tax proposal will be ready in the second quarter of 2012, although there is no urgency for introducing this levy,"  he said.

Grabowski generally shares the industry view that the tax system should be drafted as soon as possible.

"The most important thing is that investors need to know what an ultimate regime will be like (…) in the years when they start production."

Deputy minister added that the new law will come into effect as soon as the industrial scale production of shale gas is reached, which he envisages would be in 2015 the earliest.

Grabowski stressed, that the tax element will be just a part of a wider package regulating production of gas.

"Tax regulations have to take into consideration overall regulation adjustments, needed to create a legal infrastructure, which will pave the way to the development of production of gas, including unconventional gas.