Kazakhstan has rejected an appeal against a fine for alleged excessive flaring at the country’s largest offshore oilfield, Kashagan, in the latest in a string of penalties imposed on an operating consortium led by Italy’s Eni and UK supermajor Shell.

An economic court in the capital of Astana said in a statement on Friday that it had upheld an earlier ruling by a lower court in the city of Atyrau in May 2024, which imposed a fine of almost 3.6 billion tenge ($6.6 million) on Kashagan operator North Caspian Operating Company (NCOC) after it said the consortium had flared produced associated gas above limits previously agreed with authorities.

Appealing the fine, NCOC’s legal representatives reiterated to the court in Astana, as they did already in Atyrau, that Kazakh authorities should have brought up the claim in international arbitration as the production sharing agreement between project’s shareholders and the government said disputes should be resolved in such a way , according to Kazakh court filings.

The court in Astana said that the ruling has not yet been formally enacted in order to permit NCOC to appeal against the decision in a higher court. The country’s legal framework usually allows one month for such an appeal to be filed.