From January to November of 2006, Belize Natural Energy sold 811,199 barrels of oil and from that grossed $87,869,662 in revenue - but how much of that has government received? Well, those figures were made public today.

  • Royalties are 7.5% of gross production; so, for the first three quarters of the Year, that has produced US$2.1 million.
  • Production share is another 1.5% and that should be paid by the end of January.
  • Income tax hasn't been paid yet. That is due at the end of the financial year in March. That should produce the bulk of the tax payments. But the matter is under dispute as Belize Natural Energy is challenging the tax regime which carries payments back to January of 2006 - even though the tax was not brought to the house until August. The company reportedly wants the tax to come into force effective April, 2006.
  • Government will also get 10% of the end of financial year dividend - because it exercised its option to purchase 10% of the working interest of BNE.

So, bottom line?

  • As of today, government's cash in hand is $7 million
  • BNE's cash in hand is $175 million.

And that BNE figure does not include sales for December which should bring their calendar year sales close to $200 million gross. It's worth noting that of the $811,000 barrels produced, 45,000 of that was sold locally.

Tags Belize Natural Energy GOB