​Atyrau Refinery fined, steaming of railcars stopped

By Murat Sultangaliev

Atyrau Oblast Prosecutor's Administration Office #1 circulated the press release about the inspection that had been carried out jointly with the regional department of ecology. The reason for inspection was specified as follows: "in connection with latest frequent cases of pollution of atmospheric air in Atyrau".

Among the companies that store, process and sell crude oil and oil products and don't ensure strict performance of the legislation were named “Atyrau Refinery", “KazRosInpeks" and “Om Trade Oil".

Press release, in particular, reads: "Products of oil refining are stored and transported in violation of projects that have been coordinated with authorized bodies; nature protection obligations are not fulfilled (quality control of atmospheric air, planting with trees of the territory, professional development of workers in the field of environmental protection); operations environmental control is conducted with violations of established requirements; equipment that hasn't gone through the state environmental assessment is used for operations".

According to the instructions issued by the prosecutor's office - the department of ecology has fined the companies that allowed violations of nature protection legislation for a total amount of 5 million tenge. Measures for recovery of environmental damages in the amount of more than 11 million tenge are being undertaken. By the court's decision the activity of KazRosInpeks LLP (steaming of railcars) has been suspended until they obtain ecological permits.