Chad oil-row payment overstated, says Petronas

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 10 (Reuters) US oil major Chevron and Malaysian partner Petronas will end up paying much less to settle their tax dispute with Chad than the 1.6 million payment revealed by the government, Petronas said.

The central African nation had announced on Friday that Chevron and Petronas [PETR.UL], partners in Chad's Doba oil project, agreed to pay the 1.6 million for taxes owed in 2005 and 2006.

But Malaysian state news agency Bernama quoted Petronas Chief Executive Hassan Marican as saying at a social function on Monday night that the amount to be paid would be ''much, much less''.

''He, however, declined to divulge the actual figure,'' Bernama reported, quoting Hassan as saying: ''All parties were happy that the issue had been resolved.'' Chevron and state-owned Petronas had been threatened with expulsion over the row, which surfaced in August when Chad's president said the two firms had refused to pay 250 billion CFA francs (5 million) owed under a 2000 taxation agreement.

Under the deal hammered out in talks last week, the parties agreed to terminate the 2000 agreement whose interpretation was at the centre of the dispute.

Petronas owns 35 percent of the billion Doba consortium, Chevron 25 percent and operator Exxon Mobil the remaining 40 percent. The Doba project in southern Chad started pumping crude in 2003 and now produces 160,000-170,000 barrels per day.

Chad President Idriss Deby has dismissed as ''crumbs'' the 12.5 percent wellhead value share that Chad receives from Doba and has called for the consortium agreement to be renegotiated to grant a new state oil company a stake.

REUTERS DH RAI0532