North Caspian Operating Company denies reports of oil spill at Kashagan field

ALMATY. April 3 (Interfax) - North Caspian Operating Company (NCOC), operator of the Kashagan oil field offshore Kazakhstan, has officially denied claims of an oil spill.

Reports on March 30, 2024, suggested a potential spill near the offshore site.

` "Information about the alleged oil spill, wastewater or other liquid discharges at the offshore Kashagan field on March 30, 2024, at 7:43 (GMT+5) or 2:43 (UTC), has not been verified. Satellite imagery from SENTINEL-1A and TerraSAR-X on March 30 and April 2, 2024, revealed natural phenomena in the Northern Caspian Sea, including near Island D of the Kashagan field. In later images taken in the following days, such phenomena were no longer present. The area near Island D, as mentioned in the publication, was inspected, and no spills or leaks were found," NCOC said on Wednesday.

NCOC said offshore facilities are operating normally.

A day earlier, reports surfaced in various Kazakh media outlets, citing social activists, who claimed the detection of an oil spill spanning approximately 7 square kilometers near Kashagan in the Caspian Sea.

NCOC is owned by KMG Kashagan B.V. with 16.877%; Shell (SPB: RDS.A) Kazakhstan Development B.V., Total EP Kazakhstan, Agip Caspian Sea B.V., and ExxonMobil Kazakhstan Inc. with 16.807% each; CNPC Kazakhstan B.V. with 8.333% and Inpex North Caspian Sea Ltd. with 7.563%.

Kashagan is Kazakhstan's first offshore oil and gas field in the Caspian Sea. It is the largest international investment project in the country. Commercial operation at Kashagan began on November 1, 2016. The recoverable oil reserves of the Kashagan field are estimated to range between 9 and 13 billion barrels.