Venezuela Won't Negotiate Tax Increase

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Venezuela is not willing to negotiate a tax increase on a heavy crude upgrading project involving ExxonMobil, Venezuelan Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said Thursday.

"No, that is not negotiable," Ramirez said when asked whether he would discuss rolling back the tax increase on ExxonMobil's Cerro Negro project in eastern Venezuela that was implemented last October.

The royalty taxes for Cerro Negro, as well as three other heavy crude upgrading projects in Venezuela, were increased from 1 percent to 16.6 percent.

The projects were designed to include low taxes during the initial stages of production to compensate for high capital investments by the companies involved.

Forbes