Kazakhstan presses on with $4.4 billion fine against Kashagan consortium

ALMATY, Aug 25 (Reuters) - Kazakhstan's regional ecological department is pressing ahead with an around $4.4 billion fine against an international consortium developing the country's giant Kashagan oilfield, according to an official document and a source, amid prolonged legal battles.

The NCOC consortium, which includes Eni ENI.MI, Shell SHEL.L, TotalEnergies TTEF.PA and ExxonMobil XOM.N, said its shareholders strongly disagree with any such fine and will continue to pursue all available avenues of recourse against the decision.

Kazakhstan's government originally fined NCOC 2.3 trillion tenge - then worth $5.4 billion - in early 2023 for ecological violations related to an inspection of Kashagan's gas processing facilities in 2022, when the authorities said they discovered excessive volumes of poisonous sulphur at the site.

The operator of the consortium denied the accusations and filed an appeal.

In early August, a court in Astana suspended the dispute between the oil companies developing the Kashagan field and the Department of Ecology of the Atyrau region. However, according to the source and the official document, the department will continue to press the claim.

Kazakhstan has clashed for years with international oil companies over costs, bringing multi-billion-dollar claims against them.

The companies say the government is simply seeking to increase its shares in key oil and gas projects in what amounts to "resource nationalism".

Kazakhstan's authorities have rejected such criticism, saying their aim was to rein in costs inflated by Western majors.

The country derives most of its oil production from its Tengiz, Karachaganak and Kashagan oilfields, which were developed with the help of international oil majors.

In 2023 it also launched claims against groups developing the Kashagan and Karachaganak oilfields worth more than $13 billion and $3.5 billion, respectively, over disputed costs.

($1 = 534.8900 tenge)