Kazakhstan will impose a crude export duty of $109.91 per tonne from May. Although officials have reassured Western companies that the duty is unlikely to affect their existing contracts, but new investors will be liable, it would logically make sense to impose new tax on all exporters.

“The crude export duty is aimed not only at achieving fiscal goals, but also at stabilising domestic oil products prices that have formed main inflationary pressures,” the government says.

Kazakh oil company KazMunaiGas E&P estimated a possible annual impact of a new duty on its operations at $800 million and said it would review its production, financial and investment plans as a result.

Although this move of the Kazakh government will likely alarm potential newcomers to its energy business and some - or all - of the already operating companies, it is a sound and legitimate step to protect the country’s national interests. Such duties are existent in most countries that depend on commodities export, and Kazakhstan is perhaps even too late to introduce it after years of the Western oil giants’ superprofits.