Oil Majors Lose Another Appeal of $5 Billion Kazakh Sulfur Fine

The oil majors that operate Kazakhstan’s second-largest field lost another court appeal over an environmental fine of about $5 billion, further narrowing their options to fight the penalty.

In a ruling on April 8, an Astana-based court upheld an earlier decision to impose a fine of 2.356 trillion tenge on the Kashagan oil venture for storing excessive amounts of sulfur at the field, the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources said in emailed reply to questions from Bloomberg.