ALMATY, July 24 (Reuters) – Kazakhstan has frozen property and transport of the North Caspian Operating Company, the operator of the Kashagan oilfield, over the non-payment of a nearly $5 billion environmental fine, according to the justice ministry’s database.
It does not specify which assets or vehicles are affected. The measure was imposed on July 21.
NCOC – a joint venture of Shell, TotalEnergies, ExxonMobil and China’s CNPC, among others – did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Kazakhstan said it may seek to enforce a 2.3 trillion tenge ($4.84 billion) environmental fine against NCOC over alleged breaches of sulphur storage limits and warned the company’s head of possible criminal prosecution.
NCOC and its contractors reject the fine and the allegations behind it, and the case is currently being heard in international arbitration.
($1 = 474.8500 tenge)
(Reporting by Mariya Gordeyeva; additional reporting by Ksenia Orlova in Moscow, Editing by Louise Heavens)
