Kazakhstan has increased the amount of its compensation claims against international oil companies responsible for developing the Kashagan and Karachaganak oil fields from $16.5 billion to $150 billion.
According to bes.media, the compensation is related to lost profits from prolonged delays in the implementation of projects dating back almost to the very start of their development 20 years ago.
It is reported that earlier, for environmental violations at Kashagan and Karachaganak, the government of the Republic of Kazakhstan sought to hold North Caspian Operating Company (NCOC) accountable.
The court claims against the company cover the period from 2010 to 2018 for Kashagan and from 2010 to 2019 for Karachaganak.
For context, it was previously reported that the operator of the Kashagan field, NCOC, lost a court case following an environmental inspection of the field.
The Department of Ecology found that NCOC was storing 1 million 750 thousand tonnes of sulphur against a permitted 730 thousand tonnes. In addition, the inspection also revealed a host of other environmental violations. The total amount of environmental fines was 2.3 trillion tenge ($5.1 billion).
Later, NCOC appealed to the Astana court, which overturned 3 out of 10 of the identified environmental violations. However, neither side was satisfied with the partial resolution of the claim. NCOC stated that the company operates in accordance with the legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
The Ministry of Ecology, for its part, filed an appeal against the ruling. The court’s appellate panel upheld the legality of the fines, rejecting the arguments of the NCOC consortium.