Energy
KAZAKHSTANENI
Author: Kostis Geropoulos
Giant Caspian oil field Kashagan is the bone of contention in a dispute between the Kazakh authorities and Italy’s ENI*
Nursultan Nazarbayev has learned from the best. Russian President Vladimir Putin may have given the Kazakh president a few pointers on how to squeeze foreign oil and gas companies extra hard, threatening to take away their prized assets, in order to work out a better deal for his country.
The Kazakh government’s decision on August 27 to suspend work on the ENI-operated Kashagan oil field for breaches of environmental regulations is eerily similar to the way Russia’s Kremlin muscled back Shell’s Sakhalin-II and BP’s Kovykta assets.