The executive director of the 'Globus' centre for environmental and legal initiatives Galina Chernova reported an oil spill near the Kashagan field in the Caspian Sea.
The area of the spill was approximately 7 sq. km, and the slick drifted towards the north of the Caspian Sea. According to media reports, the eco-activist refers to images from the space monitoring of a European satellite.
"According to space monitoring data, an oil spill was detected on 30 March near the Kashagan field in the Caspian Sea. According to the group carrying out this space monitoring, 'the radar image from the European satellite Sentinel-1A of 30.04 (02:43 UTC) showed a spill near the Kazakh field and oil production site Kashagan'", stated Galina Chernova.
In her opinion, possible causes of the spill could be: accidental or emergency oil leakage, discharge of industrial water containing petroleum products, or an emergency involving service vessels that caused the spill.
The field is owned by North Caspian Operating Company N.V. (NCOC). The ecologist is puzzled as to how NCOC allowed an oil leak and what actually happened at the offshore complex.
At the same time, she also has questions for the ecology department of the Atyrau region. She is interested in whether the department knows about the emergency at the Kashagan field, what measures were taken, and whether the damage to the marine environment has been assessed.
For context, earlier NCOC lost a court case brought by the Ministry of Ecology of the Republic of Kazakhstan regarding environmental protection violations. Despite this, the company still stated that it adheres to all environmental requirements.