The government of Kazakhstan, holder of 3.3 percent of the world's oil, brought forward a tax on crude exports to next month, in order to ensure domestic supplies and help curb inflation.

The tax will come into force 30 days after notice of the new duty is published in the government's official newspaper, the state-run Kazinform news service said on its Web site today. The government had previously planned to impose the tax at the start of 2009. The duty will be introduced at a rate of $109.91 a metric ton, or about $15 a barrel.

``It's a compromise, starting earlier than expected but at a rate that's less damaging to companies,'' Rinat Gainoulline, an analyst at Moscow-based Alfa Bank, said by telephone today. The new tax should be offset against existing royalty payments and may affect net income by only about 10 percent to 15 percent, he said.

The new tax won't affect companies whose contracts guarantee a stable customs regime, Kazinform said. Energy Minister Sauat Mynbayev had threatened in January to have such contracts renegotiated. The initial tax rate is based on an average world oil price in the first quarter of $714 a ton.

Chevron Corp.'s TengizChevroil LLP and Karachaganak Petroleum Operating BV, led by BG Group Plc and Eni SpA, operate under production-sharing agreements, in which duties and taxes are fixed at the time of signing.

KazMunaiGas Exploration Production, a unit of the state oil and gas company, said in a statement it may revise its investment plans because of the introduction of the new tax. It estimated a pretax annualized financial impact on profit from the new duty of about $800 million.

Taxable Exports

``The government wants more oil to be sold in the domestic market so the local fuel prices are lower than international'' prices, Mynbayev's aide Dinara Shaimardanova said by telephone from the Kazakh capital, Astana. Exports of 27 million tons of oil, which is about 40 percent of last year's output, may be taxed.

Kazakhstan, the biggest energy producer in Central Asia, said last year it wanted a greater share of profit from international producers such as Chevron Corp., Exxon Mobil Corp. and Eni SpA as crude prices soared.

The government decision to tax oil export will be published in a few days in the state-run Kazakhstanskaya Pravda newspaper, Ainagul Shakirova, spokeswoman for Prime Minister Karim Masimov, said by phone from Astana.