The President Nursultan Nazarbayev signed the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan “On Amendments and Additions to Certain Legislative acts of the Republic of Kazakhstan on subsurface use” aimed at improving the legislation on subsurface use, Zakon.kz informs.

The following amendments were introduced: a simplified procedure for granting rights to subsurface use, based on the Australian experience, introduction of the auction as a new method for selecting the winner of the competition, optimization of provisions of the model contract (duplicate text reduced by 98%), reduction of up to 60% of the obligatory expertise of contracts, elimination feasibility study from the list of mandatory project documents, as well as the release of subsoil users producing solid minerals from the obligation to negotiate changes in the contract in cases when the production volume is changed within 20% of the initial project parameters, regulation of issues related to subsurface use in the case of expansion of the contract area.

The Law also sets deadlines for elimination of non-compliances committed by subsurface users in respect of issues related to implementation of contracts.

The document ensures the elimination of gaps in the existing procedure for granting subsoil use rights through direct negotiations to parties engaged in industrial innovation activity; regulation of issues related to prevention of oil pollution of marine environment; as well as the improvement of the rules for securing the priority right of the state in the subsurface areas.

Furthermore, a number of amendments and additions was introduced to the RoK Law «On Subsurface and Subsurface Use». In particular, norms have been adopted which more clearly define such concepts as “depleted reserves”, “appraisal work”, “appraisal work project”, “exploration”, “subsurface protection”, “state geological studies of subsurface”. New terms were introduced such as: “tender”, “auction”, “physical volume of obligations”, “financial liabilities’.

The Law was also supplemented by clauses regulating the procedure for implementing the priority right of the State with the participation of the national management holding or a national company, and aimed at the creation of a unified accounting system of production and turnover of oil and gas in Kazakhstan.