EURACTIV reports that Kazakhstan is kicking back against oil deals made under the much lauded 'rules-based order':

ALMATY, KAZAKHSTAN – Kazakhstan's push to renegotiate opaque, decades-old oil contracts at Kashagan, where 98% of revenues go to foreign companies, is straining relations with the EU and exposing deeper tensions over transparency, sovereignty and resource control.

[https://www.euractiv.com/section/politics/news/kazakhstan-wants-its-oil-back-it-comes-at-the-worst-time-for-the-eu]

Trump would have been ecstatic if Ukraine had agreed to hand over 98% of revenues from its mineral wealth to the USA.

But not only that:

Kashagan is exploited by the North Caspian Operating Company (NCOC), dominated by European companies such as Shell (UK), Eni (Italy) and Total Energies (France), which each hold a 16.8% stake.

...

After they refused to pay a $5.1 billion fine for environmental violations imposed by the Kazakh Ministry of Ecology, the NCOC oil companies have won two favourable rulings in separate arbitration cases against the Kazakh government in March 2025.

So that's what Net Zero means: We get your oil revenues and you get nothing and a cleanup bill!

No wonder then that:

Last January, Kazakh President Kassym Zhomart Tokayev announced that he would push for the renegotiation of oil agreements "under renewed, more beneficial conditions for the country".

And while we are on the subject of Kazakhstan, why is it that the land-grabbing dictator Putin, who apparently wants to recreate the Soviet Union or the Imperial Russian Empire according to many, is not invading Kazahstan for its undoubted oil wealth rather than being accused of planning to invade Finland for its valuable lumber and freshwater lakes?

Go figure.