After Kazakhstan offered the EU additional supplies of oil and gas, the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC), which deals with the export of Kazakh oil, has to stop operations for an initial 30 days.

This was caused by a court in the southern Russian city of Novorossiysk, which justified the step with violations of environmental regulations.

Kazakhstan exports more than 80 percent of its oil via three CPC terminals in Novorossiysk with a handling capacity of 67 million tons of oil per year.

Frederick Smith

Political correspondent for Russia and the CIS in Moscow.

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According to the CPC, in an audit at the beginning of May, incomplete documentation in an emergency plan for the elimination of any oil spills was criticized.

At the beginning of June, the authorities gave CPC until November 30 to remedy the violations.

But in a court hearing on Tuesday, the regional transport authority called for the immediate cessation of operations.

One is "forced to implement the court decision", but will appeal against it, explained CPC.

On Wednesday, the company, in which the Russian and Kazakh states hold shares, requested a 30-day reprieve.

On Monday, Kazakhstan's President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, in talks with Council President Charles Michel, offered the EU to ship more oil and gas to Europe to ensure the continent's energy security.

Kazakhstan is Moscow's partner in the Eurasian Economic Union and in the ODKB defense alliance, but the country is keen on good relations with the West.

The leadership in Nur-Sultan has repeatedly asserted that it has no intention of circumventing Western sanctions.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said no decision had been made on the draft of a Kazakh decree that would ban the export of goods from third countries to Russia and Belarus;

the leaders of both countries wanted to "jointly respond to challenges coming from abroad and minimize the consequences of these unfriendly acts."

Unlike Moscow, Kazakhstan has not recognized the separatist republics in the Donbass as “states”.

Tokayev justified this with considerations of international law at a forum alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin in mid-June.