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The northern Caspian is very shallow - only three metres deep - and
freezes in winter. The consortium has had shallow-draught icebreakers
built to keep the area open during the five months of freeze. The
waters are also too shallow for traditional oil rigs so the operator,
Agip of Italy, which also has a 16.67% share, is building artificial
islands from which to operate the wells.
Professor Diarov is also concerned that the five nations that border
the Caspian - Russia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan -
have no joint agreements about the safety of the sea or conservation.
“It is only oil dollars that talk round here,” he said.
Local environmental groups have sent a petition to the UN asking it to
intervene in getting the five nations of the Caspian round a table.
Their petition talks about “deep disquietude” over the fate of the sea
and the potential for man destroying its unique wildlife - including
the four commercially important species of sturgeon.
They are also concerned about human health. The air pollution from
existing refineries is one objection but the other is “sour gas” -
natural gas mixed with oil which is heavily contaminated with hydrogen
sulphide. The nearby onshore field, which has been producing high
quality crude, has a similar sour gas problem. This field, 50% owned
by ChevronTexaco and 25% by ExxonMobil, is run by Tengizchevroil,
known locally as TCO, and claims to contribute $1.8bn a year to the
Kazakhstan economy.
Byproduct blighting Caspian life
There is a sulphur mountain on the shores of the Caspian Sea, more than
6 million tonnes of it, and it is growing by 4,000 tonnes a week. The
sulphur is a byproduct of the Tengiz field, stockpiled when the “sour
gas” brought up with highgrade crude is cleaned up to produce liquid
petroleum gas, or LPG, for European Union markets. The mountain has
become a huge embarrassment to field owners Chevron and ExxonMobil.
Not only is it the focus of local protests, but yesterday field
operator Tengizchevoil, or TCO, was fined 11bn tenge (US $80m) by a
court in Kazakhstan for “ecological damage”. TCO said it was “very
disappointed” and considering an appeal to the supreme court.
“According to our data, this sulphur negatively affects the environment,”
said Turaly Onerbayev, regional representative of the natural resources
and environmental protection ministry. Even before the imposition of
the fine, it was clear that about 3,000 people were having to be moved
50 miles away because of pollution - and they blame sulphur dust for
their illnesses.
TCO denies the charge and says the sulphur is safe, but has decided
to get rid of it. Until recently it had virtually no outlet for it;
in landlocked Kazakhstan the only route out for large volumes of
sulphur has been by rail, but TCO has used every available slot for
transporting oil. Now, however, TCO has linked up with the Russian oil
pipelines, so most of its output no longer needs to go by rail. But
there is a second problem: a worldwide sulphur glut. Some 40m tonnes
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