"A broken promise: Kazakhstan refuses to end oil extraction on crucial aquifer" Just Finance International, 20 June 2025

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KEY FINDINGS

1. The government of Kazakhstan has quietly doubled back on its 2023 pledge to phase-out oil and gas production on the remote steppe sand massif Kokzhide, instructing instead its officials to maintain output levels—despite the documented harm and threat to a strategic aquifer and the local population.
2. Contradictions, unclarity and denial of information from authorities and oil companies, of whom a large portion are controlled by China, mar public scrutiny and democratic accountability on this issue.
3. For Kazakhstan, the economic benefits of further operations at the site seem small compared to the price tag: in order to continue to extract fossil fuels that amount to only 1 percent of annual national production, the government is endangering—possibly polluting beyond restoration—freshwater resources important for more than 10 percent of its population.
4. There is broad societal support for protecting Kokzhide and a recent letter to JFI from the Kazakh Deputy Minister of Energy claims the government is currently weighing the value of this water resource against that of further oil extraction.
5. This indicates a window of opportunity now for Kazakh civil society and the international community to engage with the Kazakh government on this issue. Similarly; US, Norwegian, UK, German and other investors in corporations controlling much of Kokzhide extraction should clarify to boards that prioritising short-term fossil fuel extraction over long-term water security is not only unethical but also fraught with business risk...