Buzachi Neft LLP has been fined nearly 2.3 billion tenge for a fire at the Karaturyun South field in the Mangystau region.
"To recover from Buzachi Neft LLP in favour of the state the sum of damages amounting to 2,269,347,033 tenge, as well as court costs of 68,080,411 tenge", the ruling of the Almaty specialised inter-district court stated.
According to media reports, the claim for damages was filed by the RSU "Western Interregional Department of State Inspection in the Oil and Gas Complex of the Ministry of Energy of the Republic of Kazakhstan".
According to the case materials, the department received a representation from the specialised environmental prosecutor's office of the region regarding the elimination of violations related to the release of a gas-water mixture followed by ignition during the drilling of well No. 303 at the Karaturyun South field.
"As a result of the flaring of raw gas from well No. 303 of the Karaturyun South field from its annulus (gryphon), Buzachi Neft LLP violated the requirements of paragraph 3 of Article 123 of the Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan 'On Subsoil and Subsoil Use'—'exploration work for hydrocarbons must be carried out using methods and means provided for by the exploration work project and/or the pilot production project, in accordance with positive subsoil use practice'—and paragraph 2 of Article 125 of the Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan 'On Subsoil and Subsoil Use'—'extraction must be carried out using methods and means that exclude hydrocarbon losses not provided for by the basic project document, in accordance with positive subsoil use practice'—and caused economic damage to the state", the court explained.
It was noted that the fire at the Karaturyun South field began in early June last year. It took more than six months to extinguish.
At the time, Buzachi Neft LLP claimed that the ecology department had taken air samples for exceeding the maximum permissible concentration of harmful substances in the sanitary protection zone within a 1 km radius of the well after the ignition, and assured that the tests did not detect any exceedances of the limits.