Kazakhstan’s State Agency to Combat Economic Crimes and Corruption has filed a claim of more than $700 million against the consortium Karachaganak Petroleum Operating (KPO), which is developing the Karachaganak Field.

The first ever lawsuit filed by NGOs against the Government of Kazakhstan has received a continuance.  The Review Board of the Supreme Court satisfied the complaint filed by the public association “Zhasil Dala” and the Ecological Society “Green Salvation” with its decision to continue to review the case regarding relocating the residents of the village of Berezovka.

Having secured the operation of major oil and gas fields, foreign investors usually take responsibility for providing support to small- and medium-sized businesses, and to finance projects that have social significance for the region and the country. And they even put their promises down on paper. In this case the simplest of questions “What has the money been spent on?” remains unanswered more often than not.

The Supreme Court has acknowledged as legal the complaints of the residents of the village of Berezovka and demanded a reexamination of their case. 

Chevron shareholders were given a full account of the true costs of Chevron’s global operations by a delegation of representatives of Chevron affected communities from the across the nation and around the world. Outside supporters filled the entryway, closing Chevron’s front gate with a vibrant rally. Representatives from Nigeria, Ecuador, Richmond and the Philippines, were joined inside by those representing communities from Burma, Kazakhstan, Iraq and Alberta to present to shareholders an alternative annual report, The True Cost of Chevron.

The Uralsk Environmental Protection Prosecutor fined KPO 8.6 billion tenge for inflicting harm to the environment.

Last year, the company was fined by the government 1 billion, 840 million tenge as compensation for damages caused by exceeding the norms for emissions of toxic substances into the atmosphere.

Karachaganak not only pollutes the air and water, but causes an earthquake!

Seismologists explain the reasons for the earthquake that occurred in Western Kazakhstan this past Saturday.  As the press corps of the Ministry for Emergency Situations stated, the strength of the underground tremors was 5.6 on the Richter scale.

A court in Kazakhstan has fined a group of Western energy majors developing the huge Karachaganak gas field $15 million for environmental damages.

Crude Accountability's Executive Director, Kate Watters, was interviewed by Voice of America regarding the negative impact of foreign investment into oil and gas in Central Asia, focusing on Karachaganak. The Russian language interview was broadcast on Russian television on March 9, 2007. To watch the interview, take this link to the VoA website, and click on the link for "Объектив". The interview is at minute 19:30.

Two guards from the “Bek Security” firm, working at the Karachaganak Field in Western Kazakhstan Oblast, died as a result of poisoning from an unknown chemical substance. This was reported to our agency by the Oblast Department of State Sanitary Epidemiological Oversight.

On the basis of expert analysis of project, normative and other documents presented by the company, it was concluded that the activities of the enterprise are not in accordance with the requirements of the Republic of Kazakhstan’s environmental protection legislation.

Corruption and cynicism—these were the characteristics used to describe KPO, B.V. and the government administration during a public hearing on the subject of relocating the village of Berezovka. The bureaucrats and investors answered each of these accusations with a smile.

Kazakhstan’s Minister of Environmental Protection, Nurlan Iskakov, thinks that the residents of the village of Berezovka in Western Kazakhstan Oblast (WKO) should be relocated from the Karachaganak Oil and Gas Condensate Field’s zone of influence.

The reduction of the radius of the Sanitary Protection Zone around the Karachaganak Field from five to three kilometers is illegal. The Prosecutor of the Western Kazakhstan Oblast spoke about this in a press release distributed on April 4.

The Initiative Group of Berezovka residents are preparing a lawsuit against the company, “Karachaganak Petroleum Operating.” They hold in their hands irrefutable evidence of the foreign company’s participation in the destruction of their land and inflicting harm on their health!

Nearly 160 thousand tons of harmful solid and liquid industrial wastes have accumulated to date on the territory of the Karachaganak Oil and Gas Condensate Field. Consequently, almost 40 percent of Western Kazakhstan Oblast's residual waste is located at the field, reports Kazinform.

Due to environmental violations, the Ecology Department of Western Kazakhstan refused to grant the oil company "Karachaganak Petroleum Operating" a license to conduct environmentally dangerous operations.

The company Karachaganak Petroleum Operating (KPO, B.V.) has become the worldwide record holder for environmental fines among companies engaged in field development.

In late January, 27 environmental nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) from 19 countries in Europe, Asia and the US, approached Ian MacDonald, General Director of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC), and its shareholders. The environmentalists requested that the CPC halt the transport of hydrocarbons from the Karachaganak Oil and Gas Field, due to the negative impact of this project on the residents of Russia and Kazakhstan.

In accordance with environmental norms, a so-called sanitary protection zone was established, in due course, with a 5-kilometer radius around the Karachaganak Oil and Gas Condensate Field. Then it was reduced to three kilometers.

The Burlinsky Vesti article "Resettlement: On What Grounds?", published on December 28, 2004. This article is notable for its gross inaccuracies and publication of confidential personal data about Crude Accountability staff.

In Burlinsky Raion, there is a village with the beautiful name, Berezovka (Birch Tree). But, unfortunately, the air in this place has anything but the aroma of birches. Usually it smells like hydrogen sulfide because Berezovka is located approximately three kilometers from the Karachaganak Oil and Gas Condensate Field.

The Uralsk Weekly has written several times about the problems facing the residents of the village of Berezovka, who have become the guarantors of the interests of the international corporations developing the Karachaganak oil and gas condensate field, and our own government that is handing the field over to them.

According to the villagers, during the past year, the quality of drinking water has dramatically decreased, but there is no information about ground water pollution.

The Earth Report television program's episode entitled "Svetlana's Story", which aired on BBC World. In addition to reading the episode transcript, you can view a clip of the episode and access a number of related web links.