Kazakhstan Oil Ministry fines subsoil users 350 million tenge

Kazakhstan Ministry of Oil and Gas has fined subsoil users 350 million tenge ($2.3 million) in 2012, Tengrinews.kz reports citing the Ministry’s accountable secretary Kanatbek Safinov as saying at the forum of oil and gas companies Oil and Gas: Kazakhstan Content-2013. “Since 2010 Kazakhstan has a right to impose penalties on companies for nonperformance of their contract obligations on local content. Oil and Gas Ministry started levying the penalties in 2011. In 2011 we received 180 million tenge ($1.2 million) and 350 million tenge ($2.3 million) in 2012,” Kanatbek Safinov said. 21 companies out of 25 fined ones have already paid the fines into the budget, he said adding that the number of violations of procurement rules by subsoil users has been decreasing. “In 2010 the subsoil users' procurements that contained violations were totally worth 157.6 billion tenge ($1.05 billion) and in 2011 they were worth 148 billion tenge ($987 million). The dynamics changed sharply in 2012. The total amount of procurements with violations made only 18.4 billion tenge ($122.7 million) in 2012,” Safinov said.