"According to OPEC, our country is in the top 15 oil-producing countries. However, the main trouble is that we still do not have reliable records of oil output. According to the Prosecutor General's Office, since 2015, there is discrepancy makes about 2 million tons between the extracted, and this is 189 million tons of oil, and exported - 191 million tons of oil. In monetary terms, this is $ 600 million," she said.
According to her, as a result of comparison of the report of the Ministry of Energy on the volume of oil production and processing with the data of customs authorities on oil exports, 40 companies were revealed that shipped more oil than they extracted.
"For three years, illegal turnover of oil and oil products amounted to 1 million tons. The investigation discovered T100 billion damage. According to the deputy attorney general (Andrey - KazTAG) Lukin, who was speaking at an interregional forum in Aktobe last year, (...) often oil is embezzled and sold in collusion with employees of oil and gas companies, security firms, through illegal connections in oil pipelines due to inadequate conservation of wells and on the basis of contracts concluded between affiliated firms," she said.
Among the reasons for that she indicated "the lack of automated recording of oil production, modern standards for its write-off, improper protection of wells."
Photo source: picture from an open source