Kazakhstan Oilman Buys Stake in Insurance Company

Safin’s company, Buzachi Neft, was sentenced to pay millions for a massive methane leak in 2023

Kazakhstan’s Agency for the Regulation of the Financial Market approved on June 3 an arm-in-arm transaction by which Murat Safin bought a stake in his daughter’s insurance company TransOil.

Safin now owns, directly and indirectly through his company Buzachi Neft, an 11% stake in TransOil. Madina Safina, his daughter, retained an 89% share.

Buzachi Neft operates a number of oil fields in the western Mangistau region and came into the spotlight in mid-2023, when an exploration project led to a massive methane leak.

The company, alongside emergency workers, was unable to seal the site and stop the leak for about six months, making it a record-breaking damage to the atmosphere.

In January 2025, Buzachi Neft notified that it had started paying the 2.2 billion tenge ($4.3 million) fine that a court had earlier imposed for environmental damage.

Safin’s brother Kanatbek served as a senator between August 2019 and January 2023. He had previously been a top-manager at state-owned energy companies and a senior-level bureaucrat in the ministry of energy.

TransOil is a minor player in the insurance industry, ranking 15th in terms of assets. Its activities are not directly related to Buzachi Neft, although TransOil also provides insurance against environmental damage.

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