News 2024
03.04.2023NCOC
Kazakhstan has filed a lawsuit against the North Caspian Operating Company (NCOC), a consortium developing the Kashagan field, for about 2.3 trillion tenge ($5.14 billion) for environmental violations.
The Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources accuses NCOC of storing twice as much sulphur as allowed.
NCOC has previously stated that it manages the production and storage of sulphur responsibly and in accordance with the requirements of the legislation of Kazakhstan, as well as in accordance with applicable standards and advanced technologies.
Bloomberg, citing an unnamed source close to the project, says the lawsuit is also important because Kazakhstan is trying to establish greater control over NCOC.
According to the Kazakh Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources, the inspection revealed violations in early March.
The Committee for Environmental Regulation and Control of the Ministry of Ecology reports that the Department of Ecology for Atyrau Region has identified the following violations in the work of NCOC:
• Excessive disposal of sulphur is carried out at the storage sites of the Bolashak oil and gas production facility in the amount of more than 1 million tonnes;
• a temporary storage site for sulphuric acid is operated without approved design documents and an environmental permit for the regeneration of spent alkali;
• the action plan for environmental protection is not implemented in full;
• without proper treatment, wastewater is discharged into the evaporation pond;
• the requirements stipulated in the conclusion of the state ecological expertise are not met;
• without agreement with the authorised body in the field of environmental protection, the sludge trap was re-profiled;
• flaring of untreated raw gas was carried out without an environmental permit;
• unauthorised emissions were carried out at the evaporation tanks of the ZhKZE facility without permits.