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Kazakhstan has shown an increase in its offshore oil and gas (O&G) prospection and operation activities in the Caspian Sea since 1998, so far with a limited number of operators, but which is about to increase significantly. This is of concern, considering that the environmental and industrial safety regulatory framework is still inadequate for the prevention of pollution from a large number of operators in a very sensitive aquatic ecosystem. This paper reports on the results of a study undertaken for the European Commission Tacis programme aimed at enhancing the environmental and industrial safety regulatory framework in order to align it with EU and international best practice. Based on a comprehensive analysis of applicable international standards and regulations, as well as those of Kazakhstan, ten issues are identified which require urgent attention. These issues are discussed and recommendations made on how to address them in order to improve the regulatory system.

The growth of demand in developing countries has given rise to a constant increase in consumption of most non-renewable resources, including oil and gas. In this regard, the importance of planning activities rises because of the limited availability of oil and gas resources. Optimization techniques are tools that help upstream and midstream managers to decide optimally. The purpose of this review article is to provide a summary of the scientific literature on optimization applications in oil-and-gas upstream and midstream management. The main problems are described within a classification scheme and the most important contributions are summarized.

China–Iran strategic deal signed on March 27, 2021 has initiated an interesting debate in the regional political discourse. Many area study experts view it as a game changer that has the potential to revamp the complexion of the regional politics. The US sanctions against Iran forced Tehran to move towards a historic deal with China to mitigate the US influence in the region. Ostensibly, global and regional politics are being divided into two blocks underpinned by the US and China. Iran under Chinese influence is jumping at the opportunity, not only capitalizing on the Chinese US$400 billion to reinvigorate its fragile economy but also availing itself of the window of international opening amid isolation. India, on the other hand, notwithstanding its strategic partnership with the US, does not want growing Chinese influence in Iran as well as in the region since it would damage its strategic interests, halting it from Chabahar Port, connectivity with Central Asia and oil import from Iran. China–Iran deal also has a good omen for Pakistan as both Iran and Pakistan clearly incline towards China for explicit reasons. China will leave no stone unturned to make the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) a success story, even connecting with Iran in the foreseeable future. With this backdrop, this paper attempts to assess the implications of the said deal for India and also shed lights on the emerging geopolitical and geoeconomic changes consequent to the deal.

Corruption has traditionally been wildly rampant in the energy sector and its effects have proved to be extremely dramatic. For decades energy companies have perpetrated corrupt practices with impunity to obtain from the local governments the green light to construct intrusive energy infrastructures, which have the potential of causing serious damages to a country’s environment and social fabric. This illicit way of carrying out business activities has been de facto tolerated by governments for a long time. It affected particular developing nations, causing the so-called “resource curse”. Then, almost unpredictably, over the course of last two decades, significant and increasingly determined efforts have been devoted to fighting against such a criminal phenomenon. It is well established that the role that transparency plays within such a grim scenario is fundamental. This chapter will examine the intimate relationship between the lack of corporate transparency and corruption, and analyze the most important legal instruments that have been developed to encourage a transparent way of conducting business activities in the energy sector at the international, regional and domestic level. Then, will also focus on the recent Trump’s administration decision to nullify the US transparency rules for the extractive industries analyzing the scope of its potentially dramatic consequences.