Experts Raise Concerns Over Transparency of Caspian Oil Agreements

At the "Voice of the Caspian" media forum in Astana, experts stated that Kazakhstan currently does not have sufficient information about agreements with oil companies that concern the environmental part, Orda.kz reports. 

Even through the courts, activists were unable to get answers from government agencies.

Environmental Information on the Caspian Sea is Closed

Co-founder of the global environmental movement Save the Caspian, ecologist Vadim Ni noted that large corporations extracting oil in Tengiz, Kashagan, and Karachaganak are not accountable to the government of Kazakhstan.

Today we are becoming more and more convinced of this. For us, these are the main fields. Two thirds of oil is produced at these fields. And the agreements were concluded in the distant 90s — on Tengiz in 1993, on Kashagan and Karachaganak in 1997. And all three of these agreements are confidential, secret documents, even in the ministries. And even in the companies themselves, separate sheets are given for work, if it is necessary to work with the agreement. And only this sheet can be used to work,
said Vadim Ni.

Environmentalists also have no information about these agreements, even though environmental requirements are stipulated.

And we don't know how comparable they are, how compatible they are with the requirements of environmental legislation. There are trials (arbitration courts on Kashagan — Ed.), and we don't know for sure whether our government agencies have grounds to file claims there for billions of dollars? The international arbitrations themselves are held in other countries and are moving into the sphere of international private law. They are closed to us. And only through the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists do we receive separate information that Kazakhstan is suing companies in Geneva and London. And then we translate these materials and learn the bits of information that journalists from other countries have obtained,
 he added.

It cannot be a state secret. And the agreements (with oil producing companies — Ed.) were concluded with the participation of the state. This was not an agreement between a private Kazakh company and a foreign one.

In January 2025, Vadim Ni submitted a request from the Save the Caspian Sea movement to gain access to the environmental conditions in the production sharing agreement.

However, he was refused by the ministries of ecology and natural resources and energy.

The refusal stated that the government had given guarantees of maintaining the confidentiality of production sharing agreements and the Ministry of Energy could not ensure their public disclosure without the written consent of the other party. At the time of the request, they did not request written consent, but later I filed a lawsuit when the case was being considered in the first instance, they made such a request and were refused.

The court also rejected Vadim Ni.

It did not even consider the claim.

Not only did I lose the case, it was not accepted for consideration by the court. The same thing happened in the appellate instance. Nothing has changed. The appellate instance did not recognize the right to access to information. On August 11, the cassation court refused to consider the claim.

A Cruel Game

According to the co-founder of Save the Caspian Sea, Galina Chernova, it is impossible to deny the impact of oil companies’ activities on the Caspian Sea.

The damage to the ecosystem is great and irreparable. We are raising this issue, but we are not being heard yet. But it is time to take this seriously, and not childishly, because the game is cruel, and these rules of the game need to be changed. Seals, birds, fish, vegetation, including aquatic vegetation — almost all natural systems of the Caspian Sea are subject to fatal impact and destruction,
 noted Galina Chernova.

Okay, not the entire water area, but at least beyond the Kashagan islands, so that we could have our own data, and not those that the company presents today as part of production and environmental control. There are no environmental posts, but at least one-time measurements need to be taken to know what is happening at sea in terms of emissions and discharges.

It is also necessary to introduce a special regime for the use of natural resources with the mandatory use of international practice and international legislation. And, of course, the disclosure of the production sharing agreement (with oil companies — Ed.). We demand today that at least the environmental part be opened, because according to the laws of our country, environmental information cannot be secret and closed unless it concerns defense and state secrets. All environmental information, especially that related to the health of the nation, must certainly be open and in the public domain.

Original Author: Zhadra Zhulmukhametova