The Caspian Cabals investigation brought together reporters from 27 news outlets to probe the Kremlin’s control and Western interests in a critical Russia-Kazakhstan oil pipeline, and how its influence and impact spread from Central Asia into Europe, the United States and beyond.
Journalists in more than a dozen countries covered topics ranging from oil companies overlooking corruption and problematic deals in the name of profit, to national governments seeking to shore up oil supplies even as war-related sanctions loomed over Russia.
Here are some of their stories:
Netherlands’ ‘toxic and shaky’ relationship with Kazakh oil
Over the past two years, oil imports from Kazakhstan into the Netherlands have increased eightfold, according to ICIJ’s Dutch media partner NRC, largely driven by increasing sanctions on Russian oil. But the relationship between the Netherlands and the Kazakh oil industry is “toxic and shaky,” NRC found in its Caspian Cabals reporting.
The Netherlands has long had a stake in Kazakhstan’s natural resources sector through Dutch energy giant Shell, which in 2023 made an almost $1.5 billion profit in Kazakhstan. NRC spoke with Shell employees and other locals who alleged widespread corruption in the Kazakhstan operations, from partnerships with problematic local companies to fumbled social projects resulting in massive cost overruns, and commercial tenders rife with suspect demands and conditions from local authorities.
“We looked each other in the eye when we saw some of these contracts and said, ‘Of course this is a corrupt mess.’ I knew it, everybody knew it,” one former Shell employee told NRC of a contract linked to the company’s oil project in Kashagan.
Shell declined to respond to questions for the investigation, but a spokesperson told NRC and ICIJ that the company does not tolerate bribery in any form.
Read more: Corruption, pollution and repression: how Dutch companies profit from Kazakhstan’s toxic oil industry (NRC)
Germany’s Kazakh-Russian balancing act
In Germany, the small Bavarian town of Burghausen is thriving thanks to a robust local refinery that plays a pivotal role in processing crude for Germany’s petrochemical industry, according to reporting by ICIJ’s German media partners Der Speigel and ZDF.
At least some of that incoming oil comes from Kazakhstan via a 939-mile pipeline, controlled by the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, that runs though that runs through Kazakhstan and Russia to the port of Novorossiysk on the Black Sea where it’s loaded onto tankers bound for Trieste in Italy. From there, the crude travels by pipeline into Germany.
After invading Ukraine in 2022, Russia was subjected to various embargoes and sanctions from authorities around the world, and many countries began to reduce or eliminate Russian oil imports — a key source of funding for the war. However, after a successful lobbying effort supported by Germany and other governments and commercial operations, the CPC was exempt from any sanctions or embargoes and the oil, ostensibly from Kazakhstan, continued to flow.
According to the reporting by ZDF and Der Spiegel, while Germany may have stopped importing Russian oil, the country’s ongoing use of Kazakh oil from the CPC means that the Russian government continues to benefit from the trade — through dividends paid to state pipeline company Transneft, which owns a significant stake in the CPC, and through taxes paid by the CPC to the Russian government.
Despite this, Germany remains committed to importing oil from Kazakhstan both as a way to ensure consistent supply, but also out of fear of pushing the Central Asian country back into Russia’s arms, ZDF and Der Spiegel reported.
“Cooperation with Kazakhstan was and is important in order to diversify our supply,” Michael Kellner, state secretary for Germany’s Ministry for Economic Affairs told ZDF. “An embargo of Kazakh oil, on the other hand, would drive the country in Russia’s arms.”
Read more: Trotz Sanktionen: Deutschland füllt weiter Kreml-Kriegskasse (ZDF)
Burghausen: Wie die Kleinstadt in Bayern an importiertem Öl verdient – und Russland mit (Der Spiegel)
Cheaper Russian oil flows to India
As the world’s third-largest consumer of crude oil, India depends on imports to meet the bulk of its requirements, according to reporting by ICIJ’s Indian media partner The Indian Express.
While only about 10% of the oil flowing through the CPC pipeline is Russian, The Indian Express reported, its connection to India has grown substantially over the past two years. While most of the Kazakh crude is sold to Europe, India has emerged as the biggest market for CPC-Russia oil over the past two years, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The reason, according to The Indian Express, likely comes down to price: since early 2022, heavily discounted Russian oil has become a cheaper option for the ravenous Indian market.
“We buy oil from many countries and many companies. As customers, we can only ensure that our deals are clean. What happened or what may happen internally in a supplying company or country is something beyond our control and most often also beyond our knowledge,” one oil industry source in India told the newspaper.
Read more: Before Russia-Ukraine war, Western oil firms ‘cut deals’ to favour Moscow’s allies (The Indian Express)
More stories from ICIJ’s media partners:
