Kazakhstan Accuses Big Oil of $10.7 Billion Corruption in Kashagan Oil Project
Kazakhstan has alleged in a confidential arbitration case that some of the biggest international oil firms that have developed the giant Kashagan oilfield awarded $10.7 billion worth of contracts with unjustified cost increases or through bribes, the International Consortium of Investigative Journal
Source: OilPrice.com
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DW NOTE
Kazakhstan spent three decades learning how to run an offshore oil megaproject and decided the lesson was: accuse the operators of $10.7 billion in fraud. The Kashagan field has been over budget since conception — first oil came 13 years late and $40 billion over the original estimate — so the accusation isn't prima facie absurd. But timing matters. Oil is trading 27% below yearly highs, the Strait of Hormuz has been effectively closed for 122 days, and Astana suddenly finds bookkeeping problems in a project it has co-owned and audited since 2000. This is either a spectacular failure of oversight or a very convenient pretext for renegotiating terms when the majors have no leverage and nowhere else to go.