The report the Ecology Ministry kept classified carries a flat title: hydroecological and hydrogeological research within the Kokzhide sand massif. Its tables are less flat. Monitoring data from 2008 to 2023 record oil products above permitted concentrations at 4 wells of KMK Munay, 7 of Ada-Oil, 3 of Kazakhoil Aktobe, 2 of CNPC's SNPS-AktobeMunayGaz and 2 of Urikhtau Operating.
That is every subsoil user working the massif.
Kokzhide, in Aktobe region, holds about 1.5 billion cubic meters of ultra-fresh groundwater, the largest such reserve in Kazakhstan. The same sands produce about 600,000 tonnes of oil and 700 million cubic meters of gas a year: 0.7% of national oil output, 1.2% of gas. Water and oil share the geology; the report measures what the sharing costs the water.
The document reached the public through a courtroom. Ecologist Sergey Solyanik, rights defender Anara Ibraeva and a third petitioner sued the ministry, and on 29 July Almaty's specialised administrative court ordered it disclosed, its still-classified portions excepted. Vlast published the findings on Tuesday evening. The ministry had two months from the ruling to appeal; the file is already in circulation.
That is every subsoil user working the massif.
The state's commissioned science reads softer. Satbayev University's applied hydrogeology centre reported in June, on 1,280 laboratory analyses, that 11% of the massif shows localised technical impact against 89% near-natural, that deep horizons meet drinking standards, and that it found no systematic contamination. Its director, Dulat Kalitov, has held that line since.
Both readings sit on the same wells. One calls the impact localised; the other, now public, counts exceedances operator by operator and finds none clean.
What the ruling changed is the audience for the paperwork. The recommendations now on the record include holding extraction to 70,000 cubic meters a day, and the next contested permit will be argued against a published baseline. No ministry comment had surfaced in the wires by Wednesday evening; the queries are named in the sources box.