OREANDA-NEWS. On October 22, 2008 Karachaganak Petroleum Operating B.V. (KPO) has announced the successful completion of shutdown activities at the giant Karachaganak oil and gas condensate field, reported the press-centre of KPO.

The milestone was achieved without any injury, any adverse impact on the environment, completing all work scope and ahead of the agreed timescale.

The 35-day work programme has represented the largest single total shutdown in the world in 2008. Thanks to accurate planning and management, KPO was able to restart oil export about five days ahead of target date, while final shutdown operations were still undergoing; all work programme has been successfully completed in less than 33 days.

In line with the RoK legislative requirements the programme involved a planned outage for essential maintenance of plant and equipment within the Karachaganak Processing Complex, Unit 2, Unit 3, infield and gathering pipelines as well as sections of the KPO export lines.

Speaking on the achievement the KPO Operations Director Antonio Baldassarre said: “The planning and execution of this major programme has taken many months and a vast number of people.

“I would like to extend my sincere thanks to everyone who have been involved and I am proud that that the KPO employees have not only successfully managed the schedule and costs associated with the shutdown, but also implemented this challenging task with no lost time incidents. This was made possible through hard work, dedication and personal commitment of all KPO employees and contractors to health, safety and environmental issues.

“KPO has taken every step to ensure that the shutdown activities were completed in a safe and efficient manner so as to protect KPO employees and contractors and minimise the financial impact to both the Republic and KPO. In addition to the millions of dollars in costs, a shutdown also means a loss of production and at today’s oil price, this is a significant income”, added Antonio Baldassarre.

During the shutdown 3.2 million man hours were worked without any injury. 165 vessels were inspected out of 800 installed at Karachaganak and maintenance was provided to 266 pressure safety valves. At the same time KPO has completed the tie in work at the Karachaganak Processing Complex for the fourth stabilisation train.

The implementation of such a challenging work was done in strict conformance with international best practice. In addition, during the 2008 shutdown programme KPO has integrated the lessons learned from previous shutdown activities at Karachaganak.

KPO Environmental Management System, which has been recently certified to ISO 14001 standards, ensured that people involved in the shutdown understood their roles and impacts and the environmental risks associated with the various activities. During the shutdown, over 2240 individual HSE Inspections were completed.

The Karachaganak Venture brings expertise and knowledge from four international oil & gas companies – BG Group, Eni, Chevron and LUKOIL. The achievements to date are testament to the solid partnerships which have been nurtured over the past decade between the Venture, the Republic of Kazakhstan and KazMunaiGas.

Today, Karachaganak is producing at record levels and is the largest gas producing field in Kazakhstan, accounting for some 48% of the country’s total gas production and around 18% of total liquids production.

Enhancing hydrocarbon utilisation and reducing emissions are both key elements of Karachaganak’s environmental improvement programme, and, in 2007, 99.65% of the gas Karachaganak produced was utilised in some way. KPO is committed to the highest international standards in all aspects of its environmental performance.

The KPO partners are also committed to a strategy of sustainable development. Beyond production revenues, the Karachaganak project also delivers significant socio-economic benefits, including employment opportunities, enhanced local capacity, skills transfer and associated infrastructure development.