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Given the confusion as to the ownership of the abandoned fields, the
State Inspectorate ran into difficulties at a very early stage of its
spillage control work on flooded fields, being unable to identify any
authority for visiting the accident site. And what if further seepage
or spillage is detected at the same sites? Presumably everything will
be very much like it is at Pribrezhnoye where oil has been flowing into
the sea without hindrance for the fourth month running.
However, it would be unfair to claim that nothing at all is being
done. Naturally the authorities are aware of the problem, as reflected
in the tender mentioned above. In 2004, the Ministry of Energy and
Mineral Resources allocated 363m tenge (about $2.7m) for abandonment
and conservation of emergency wells. But such funding is laughable.
With the cost of abandoning or conserving a well ranging from 5m to 70m
tenge, or an average of 30m tenge ($222,000), the budget will only cover
10 to 12 sites. The grand total for submerged offshore wells in the 15
fields is 1,128 in the coastal area alone, and poorly conserved onshore
wells, which are just as hazardous, must be taken into account too.
The government also approved an Oil Industry Programme of Abandonment
and Conservation of Overflow Oil and Hydrogeological Wells for 2004-
13, which provides for abandoning 171 non-operating oil wells in
Atyrau. But, here again, it is merely a drop in the ocean.
Regional authorities have allocated funds to pollution too. Atyrau
has earmarked 36bn tenge ($266m) for the budget of its Integrated
Environmental Programme for 2003-5. However the clearest indication
of the programme’s efficiency is that at the time of the accident at
Pribrezhnoye, Atyrau pleaded for money from the Centre. Was it because
the programme was over-integrated?
Now Kazakhstan is starting to implement the Caspian shelf development
programme. The country hopes the shelf will make enable oil production
to be tripled. But how can deep-well sub-sea operations be managed if
shallow water problems cannot be solved?
Note: Since this article was published there have been several small
changes. The sub-contractor Almaz has fulfilled its promises and
cleaned up five leaking oil wells. EMG is no longer operating, having
become part of the KazMunayGaz Prospecting and Production Company.
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