Income statistics for petroleum companies, week 53 2001

Assessed tax on ordinary income amounted to NOK 37.6 billion, an increase of 1.6 billion or 4 per cent. The special tax amounted to NOK 61.1 billion, an increase of 4.7 billion or 8 per cent.

Oil and gas extraction and pipeline transport

The companies involved in oil and gas extraction and pipeline transport, had an income before financial items of NOK 140.8 billion. This was only NOK 600 million more than the previous year. Taxable ordinary income still increased by NOK 6.3 billion, due to an improvement in financial items of close to NOK 4 billion. At the same time deficit and financial expenditure from previous years were reduced by close to 1.8 billion. Income liable to special tax amounted to NOK 122.2 billion in 2001, an increase of NOK 9.4 billion.

The prices of crude oil and natural gas increased considerably from 1999 to 2000, and remained relatively high also in 2001. This in addition to increased production and the Norwegian state's sale of parts of SDFI (the state's direct financial interest) have lead to high income. The sale of parts of the SDFI has thus resulted in taxation of a greater part of the petroleum production.

A total of 37 companies were assessed by the rules.

Foreign companies

Foreign companies engaged in maintenance, repair and services for Norwegian extraction companies, had an ordinary taxable income of NOK 1 028 million, only 60 per cent of the corresponding figure in 2000. Assessed tax amounted to NOK 288 million, a decline of 178 million. The number of companies assessed by the rules was 174 compared with 168 in 2000.

Tables:

• Table 1 Income and taxes for companies which are carrying out oil and gas extraction and transport via pipelines. 1997-2001. Million NOK
• Table 2 Income and taxes from foreign shelf companies. 1997-2001. Million NOK