Cadastral Works for Oil & Gas Companies: Documents, Timelines, Specifics

An oil & gas operator cannot site a well, lay a pipeline, or lease state land until the plot beneath those objects is registered in the state cadastre. This is precisely why cadastral works for oil & gas companies are not a paperwork formality but the mandatory legal basis for any construction and subsoil use. In Aktau and across Mangystau Region, where Kazakhstan’s main production is concentrated, demand for competent cadastral registration of industrial land is especially high.

This article is written for land lawyers, heads of land-management departments, and project managers at oil & gas companies who draft the terms of reference for cadastral works and select a contractor. We break down why the industry needs the cadastre, what types of work exist, what makes industrial land specific, which documents are produced, and how long it all takes.

Why the Oil & Gas Industry Needs Cadastral Works

Cadastral registration means entering a land plot — with its boundaries, area, and legal status — into the Unified State Register of Real Estate (USRRE). For an oil & gas company this is required in a number of typical situations, and almost every production facility passes through the cadastre.

Land allocation for wells and pad facilities. An exploration or production well, a well pad, a metering unit, a booster pump station, a tank farm — each such object sits on a specific plot that must be allocated from the state land fund and registered with precise boundaries.

Linear objects: pipelines, power lines, roads. A field or trunk pipeline, a power transmission line, an access or in-field road cross land of different categories and different land users. Each such extended object requires a right-of-way allocation or a right of restricted use.

Leasing state-owned land. A significant share of Mangystau Region oilfields sits on state-fund land that the operator leases long-term. A lease agreement is registered only after the plot has been entered into the cadastre.

Easements for linear structures. When a pipeline or power line runs across someone else’s plot, an easement is formalised — a right of restricted use of another party’s land along the route. Without a registered easement, laying a linear object across private or leased land is legally vulnerable.

Change of designated use. Agricultural land or reserve land on which industrial construction is planned must be converted to the industrial-land category. This is done through a land management project and subsequent cadastral registration.

Inventory of previously occupied land. Many Mangystau oilfields have been in operation for decades, and the actual boundaries of occupied plots long ceased to match the documents. A cadastral inventory brings the legal status of the land into line with reality — which matters during audits, asset sales, and licence renewals.

Types of Cadastral Works for the Oil & Gas Industry

The umbrella term “cadastral works” covers several different procedures. For oil & gas facilities the following are most often carried out:

• Land plot allocation — carving out a new area from the state fund for a specific object, establishing boundaries, and registering it.
• Boundary surveying — determining and legally fixing the coordinates of the plot’s turning points.
• Splitting, merging, and redistributing plots — for example, carving out a pad for a new well from a large leased tract.
• Right-of-way allocation for a linear object — for a pipeline, power line, or road.
• Establishing an easement — formalising the right of a linear structure’s route to cross third-party land.
• Change of designated use — converting land to the industrial-land category.
• Cadastral inventory — clarifying the actual boundaries and status of previously occupied plots.
• Boundary clarification and correction of cadastral errors — eliminating overlaps and discrepancies in the USRRE.

Each procedure rests on a land management project and concludes with entering the data into the state cadastre. We cover the full sequence of steps in a separate article on the stages of a land management project.

Specifics of Cadastral Works on Oil & Gas Land

The cadastre of an industrial facility differs fundamentally from registering a summer cottage plot or a commercial unit in a city. Below are the key features that determine the complexity and timelines of the work.

Industrial-purpose land. The industrial category implies a special use regime, sanitary protection zones, and heightened requirements for justifying the allocation. Converting land to this category is a separate procedure that cannot be skipped.

Large areas. Well pads, tank farms, and production sites span tens and hundreds of hectares. Surveying and processing such tracts require a different technology than working with a small plot.

Extended linear objects. A pipeline tens of kilometres long crosses many plots, land categories, and protected zones. A right-of-way is formalised along the entire route, and easements on third-party land. This is the most labour-intensive type of cadastral work in the industry: the legal work is handled separately for each land user crossed.

Coordination with sectoral authorities. Industrial-purpose land often requires coordination with the Ministry of Energy and environmental authorities. Projects affecting the ecologically sensitive areas of the Caspian coast undergo additional environmental assessment.

Protected zones. Pipelines, power lines, water intakes, and other structures have statutory protected zones that restrict the use of adjacent land. These must be reflected correctly in the cadastral documentation.

Work on licensed blocks. Land within the subsoil-use contour has a special status. Cadastral works here are carried out taking into account the terms of the subsoil-use contract and the operator’s requirements, and the crew must hold a valid access permit for the licensed block.

Documents: What the Client Provides and What They Receive

Cadastral works are an exchange of documents between the client, the contractor, and state authorities. To keep the project from stalling, it is important to understand in advance who is responsible for what.

What the client (the oil & gas company) provides:

• title documents for the land (land-use act, lease agreement, akimat decision);
• the subsoil-use contract or licence agreement (for work within the contour block);
• project materials for the object (site master plan, pipeline or power-line route plan);
• technical conditions and information on adjacent protected zones;
• a power of attorney to represent the client’s interests before state authorities.

What the client receives at the end:

• an approved land management project — the technical document on the basis of which the plot is entered into or changed within the cadastre;
• a cadastral number in the USRRE — the plot’s unique identifier in the state database;
• the plot boundaries on the public cadastral map — the legally fixed geometry of the object;
• a registered right or lease agreement — the ultimate basis for owning and using the land;
• a registered easement (for linear objects running across third-party land).

Timelines of Cadastral Works

There is no universal timeline: it depends on the type of work, the area and complexity of the object, the completeness of the client’s documents, and whether coordination with sectoral authorities is required. Indicative ranges look as follows.

Type of work	Indicative timeline
Allocation and registration of a compact pad (well, well cluster)	several weeks
Splitting or merging plots	several weeks
Change of designated use	depends on approvals, longer than a basic allocation
Right-of-way for an extended linear object	from several months
Cadastral inventory of a large tract	depends on area and the state of the documents

The decisive factor in the timeline is not the fieldwork but the state expert review and approvals. For industrial-purpose land, time for coordination with the relevant authorities is added. We provide a detailed stage-by-stage breakdown with realistic figures in a separate article on the timelines of a land management project in Kazakhstan. We deliberately do not quote specific statutory deadlines in days here — they change, and they should always be verified against the current wording of the regulations as of the filing date.

The Role of Geodesy in Cadastral Works

No cadastral document comes into being without a precise field survey. Geodesy is the foundation on which the entire legal superstructure of the cadastre is built.

Surveying boundaries in the state coordinate system. The turning points of the plot boundaries are surveyed in the state coordinate system of Kazakhstan, with mandatory tie-in to the points of the State Geodetic Network (SGN). Using arbitrary local systems without transformation keys is not permitted — such documentation will not pass cadastral registration.

GNSS for point and pad objects. To survey the boundaries of well pads, tank farms, and production sites we use the South Galaxy G9 GNSS receiver, which delivers centimetre accuracy in RTK and post-processing modes when tied to the SGN.

Aerial survey for extended linear objects. A pipeline or power-line route tens of kilometres long cannot be surveyed efficiently by ground methods. Here a DJI Matrice 4E drone is used: the aerial survey corridor along the route is completed in one or two days instead of weeks of ground work, and the results yield an orthophoto map and a digital elevation model for designing the right-of-way and formalising easements. The ground control points are tied in with the same South Galaxy G9 GNSS receiver.

It is precisely the accuracy and correct coordinate tie-in of the field stage that determine whether the boundaries “on paper” match the boundaries “on the ground” and whether the project passes state expert review on the first attempt.

Why a Full-Cycle Contractor Pays Off

Cadastral formalisation of an oil & gas facility is a chain: field survey → land management project → state expert review → cadastral registration → right registration. When each link is handled by a separate organisation, time is lost between them and mismatches arise: the surveyor captured coordinates in one system, the designer formatted the explanatory section their own way, and the cadastral engineer discovered an overlap at expert review that has to be corrected from the very start.

A full-cycle contractor closes the entire chain with a single team. This delivers one coordinate system across all stages, seamless continuity of data, and — most importantly — a single point of responsibility for the final result. For extended linear objects and large production tracts, where work on dozens of crossed plots runs in parallel, this is critically important.

GeoProGlobal LLP runs full-cycle land management and cadastre in Aktau and across Mangystau Region, with experience working with the region’s oil & gas operators and knowledge of their regulations and documentation requirements.

Summary Table: Type of Work → Object → Result

Type of cadastral work	For which object	Result / document
Land plot allocation	Well, well pad, booster station	Plot in the USRRE, cadastral number
Boundary surveying	Any pad object	Coordinate catalogue, boundaries on the map
Splitting / merging	Carving a pad from a tract	New plots with separate numbers
Right-of-way	Pipeline, power line, road	Registered corridor along the route
Establishing an easement	Linear object on third-party land	Registered easement
Change of designated use	Conversion to industrial land	Amended category in the cadastre
Cadastral inventory	Previously occupied oilfield land	Updated boundaries and status
Right / lease registration	Allocated or leased plot	Registered right, lease agreement

Conclusion

Cadastral works are the legal foundation of any oil & gas facility: without a registered plot you cannot build a well, lay a pipeline, or register a lease of state land. Industrial facilities are characterised by large areas, extended linear structures, easements along routes, protected zones, and mandatory coordination with sectoral authorities — all of which make the cadastre of industrial land a separate, more complex task than registering an ordinary plot.

GeoProGlobal LLP carries out cadastral works for oil & gas companies in Aktau, Zhanaozen, Beyneu, and across Mangystau Region — from a field survey with the South Galaxy G9 GNSS and an aerial survey with the DJI Matrice 4E drone through to approval of the land management project, cadastral registration, and right registration. One contractor for the whole cycle — one point of responsibility.

To discuss the formalisation of your facility and receive a commercial proposal, get in touch through geoproglobal.kz or call us directly.