Nurlan Zhumagulov, head of the Union of oil service companies, said the proposed new law could harm local businesses.

“The new code will cut support for domestic producers. It will cancel the conditional inclusion in bids of local goods, workers and services in subsoil contracts,” Mr Zhumagulov told local media.

Local content, an industry code- word for the use of domestic assets and human resources, has been a cornerstone of Kazakhstan’s oil industry. Over the past two decades, with a series of laws, the government had raised the proportion of local workers and service contracts awarded to Kazakh companies in the oil sector.

Now, WTO regulations and the prospect of similar rules in the Eurasian Economic Union might stop subsidies and favouritism, a move cheered by international firms looking to win business in Kazakhstan. They have said that the changes to the subsoil law will make the tender process fairer.

Having negotiated since the mid- 1990s, Kazakhstan finally joined the WTO in November 2015. It requires Kazakhstan to scrap its local content legislation and stop favouring its local companies.

This comes at a tough time for the oil industry. The sharp fall in oil prices, which averaged $51/barrel in 2015, meant that service industry’s revenues fell by 25% last year, accord- ing to Mr Zhumagulov.

But the Asset Issekeshev, minister of industry, appeared to brush aside these concerns

“We are aware of all these questions and they will be resolved in the framework of the new code,” he said.

Spurred on partially by an economic downturn that has hit government revenues, Kazakhstan wants to attract more foreign investment into its extractive sectors.

It has identified its current subsoil laws as a potential weakness and a barrier to entry.