Ascom Group

From 1999 the Stati family acquired, through the offshore vehicle Tristan Oil, controlling interests in two Kazakh companies, Tolkynneftegaz and Kazpolmunay, which produced hydrocarbons at the Tolkyn and Borankol fields.^[2][5] The two companies held the subsoil use contracts on which the group's Kazakh business rested, and the group also invested in a liquefied petroleum gas plant.^[6] Relations with the authorities deteriorated towards the end of 2008, when inspections led to accusations that the two companies had breached Kazakh tax legislation.^[2]

Ascom entered the oil industry of southern Sudan in June 2005, signing a production-sharing agreement for Block 5B with the southern authorities, the counterparty being the state company Nile Petroleum Corporation.^[4] Drilling was planned for early 2006, once seismic work by the Canadian contractor Terra Seis Geophysical had been completed.^[4] The agreement collided with the position of a consortium headed by Petronas, which regarded itself as the lawful operator of the block under an agreement concluded with the government in Khartoum in 2001.^[4] Such overlapping claims had arisen because contracts signed with the northern government had been declared void by the southern rebel movement during the civil war, which instead concluded agreements of its own with smaller operators.^[7]