Super tax may trigger arbitration, warn exploration firms |
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Petroleum Exploration and Production Companies Association (PPEPCA) on Thursday warned that the imposition of super tax could affect the financial viability of exploration and production (E&P) companies and undermine Pakistan’s decades-long efforts to attract foreign investment in the oil and gas sector.
In a two-page letter to Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) Secretary Jamil Ahmad Qureshi, the association said foreign and even local investors would be reluctant to commit billions of dollars to high-risk, long-term upstream projects if foundational fiscal terms could be altered unilaterally.
It said investors accepted such risks because petroleum concession agreements (PCAs) provided fiscal stability, and that removing this certainty retrospectively would be “fundamentally unfair” and........