Kazakhstani government fines Tengizchevroil for violation of environmental regulations

Tengizchevroil and Karabatan Utility Solutions were fined for violation of the environmental legislation, according to the prosecutor’s office of the Atyrau region.

«After rigorous analysis, we have identified facts of exceedance of greenhouse gas quotas as well as unauthorized emissions, exceedance of allowed amount of emissions and polluting of land. As a result of these inspections, Karabatan Utility Solutions, LLP and Tengizchevroil, LLP have been brought to administrative liability for violating the rules,» the prosecutor’s office said in a statement.

Both companies were found guilty by the court and required to pay $23.4 million in fines, the agency said.

Over the first nine months of this year, Tengizchevroil produced 21.7 million tons of oil (173.1 million barrels), which is a 0.9% increase over the same period last year (21.5 million tons). At the same time, over the period from January to September 2023, the company sold 932,000 tons of liquified gas, more than 1.9 million tons of sulfur and six billion cubic meters of dry gas. Over the same period last year, Tengizchevroil sold more than 850,000 tons of liquefied gas, 7.6 billion cubic meters of dry gas and 1.8 million tons of sulfur.

In January-September, direct payments by Tengizchevroil to the government of Kazakhstan reduced from $10.9 billion in 2022 to $10.3 billion this year. In September 2023, Tengizchevroil announced the completion of an overhaul that took a month and was the most difficult in the company’s history.

Tengizchevroil runs the Tengiz and Korolevskoye oil fields in the Atyrau region of Kazakhstan with extractable reserves of 1.4 billion tons of oil (11.5 billion barrels). In turn, the company is controlled by four stakeholders: Chevron (50%), Exxon Mobil (25%), KazMunayGas (20%) and Lukoil (5%).

Karabatan Utility Solutions is a subsidiary of Samruk-Kazyna Ondeu and Polymer Production (a subsidiary of KazMunayGas). The company is the operator for the construction of industrial and all-factory infrastructure within the special economic zone of the National Industrial Petrochemical Technopark, which was created in the Atyrau region in 2007 to boost petrochemical production associated with deep processing of oil and producing petrochemical products with higher value added. The special zone with a territory of 3,475 hectares will be working until 2032.

Karabatan Utility Solutions is engaged in producing and selling electricity and high-pressure steam and supervises water supply, water disposal and sewage treatment. Currently, the company is looking for investors for the project of constructing a 165-megawatt gas and steam turbine plant worth €174.7 million (VAT excluded): €140.6 million for designing the project, purchasing and supplying the necessary equipment and €34.1 million for the construction work itself. The final cost of the project is expected to be determined after a feasibility study this month.

Once the project is completed in 2027, it will produce 1,358 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity per year thanks to two gas turbines, two waste heat exchangers and one steam turbine. Kazakhstan has to build this new combined steam and gas power plant to boost its electricity-producing capabilities to ensure enough power for the special economic zone, the Kashagan oil project and the Caspian Pipeline Consortium.

In 2019, Karabatan Utility Solutions built a 310-megawatt combined steam and gas power plant. Water and sewage treatment facilities were built in 2021, while the construction of the all-factory infrastructure was completed in April 2023.