North Caspian Operating Company (NCOC, operator of the Kashagan oil field development) adheres to strict environmental standards in its work, said Olivier Lazar, managing director of the consortium, commenting on the lawsuit of the Ministry of Ecology of Kazakhstan against the company.
“At the moment, I can’t say anything about this yet, except that we adhere to the strictest environmental approaches in our activities. Currently, we have some disagreements with the Ministry of Ecology, but we are fully confident in the correctness of what we are doing,” Lazar told reporters in Astana.
It should be noted that the Ministry of Ecology of Kazakhstan sued the operator of Kashagan for violations of the rules of sulfur storage. “The inspection began back in 2022. As a result, it was revealed that the rules for storing sulfur were violated,” the press service of the department explained to Interfax-Kazakhstan.
Kazakhstan intends to recover about 2.3 trillion tenge (approximately $5.1 billion) from NCOC for violations of environmental protection rules.
The Kashagan oil field is considered one of the largest in the world discovered in recent decades. Its recoverable reserves range from 9 billion to 13 billion barrels of oil. Commercial production at Kashagan began in the fall of 2016.
The shareholders of the NCOC consortium are KMG Kashagan B.V. (16,877%), Shell Kazakhstan Development B.V. (16,807%), Total EP Kazakhstan (16,807%), AgipCaspian Sea B.V. (16,807%), ExxonMobil Kazakhstan Inc. (16,807%), CNPC Kazakhstan B.V. (8,333%) and Inpex NorthCaspian Sea Ltd. (7,563%).
Caspian Barrel
