An asset freeze could be the first step of an acrimonious fight with the foreign oil majors developing one of the country’s largest oil fields. On July 20, Kazakhstan’s Kazmunaigas, which owns 16.88 percent of NCOC, offered to pay its part of the environmental fine, insiders told Bloomberg. The foreign companies, meanwhile, said that they “consider the sulfur fine to be without any basis and are contesting it by all available means.” In 2011, Kazakhstan’s government threatened an environmental fine against Karachaganak, a major gas and condensate field. Together, these fields produce the vast majority of Kazakhstan’s oil and represent major tax and hard currency contributors to the country’s budget.