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Oil money threatens to make
killing fields of Kazakhstan
JOURNALIST STORY
Paul Brown in Atyrau, Kazakhstan, The Guardian, 4 December 2002
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The Kashagan oil field has attracted widespread local environmental
objections because it is right at the mouth of the Ural river, the last
natural breeding ground of the famed, but endangered Beluga sturgeon,
which produce the world’s most expensive caviar. Local fishermen and
green groups believe exploitation of the field will cause the demise
of the sturgeon.
Professor Muftach Diarov, director of the Atyrau Institute of Oil and
Gas, an independent geological school, believes that exploiting the
field in a known seismic zone could trigger a massive earthquake.
He said that the oil was under enormous pressure at temperatures of
100°C to 120°C. “This is a volatile area in geological terms. We had an
earthquake here in 2000. We just don’t have enough experience working
under such extreme conditions and [we don’t] know what would happen
should this oil be released and a void created under such pressure.
Releasing oil at 1,000 times atmosphere pressure is like releasing
a genie in a bottle. Who knows what will happen? If there is another
earthquake, the new pressures created in the oilfield could trigger
a man-made earthquake. Oil would spill out into the sea and cause an
environmental catastrophe.”
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