OREANDA-NEWS. February 25, 2013. Karachaganak Petroleum Operating B.V. (KPO) has announced the operation results of 2012.

Last year KPO produced 139.5 million barrels of oil equivalent of stabilised and unstabilised liquid hydrocarbons, gas and fuel gas.

8.6 million cubic meters of sour dry gas were re-injected to maintain reservoir pressure, which is approximately 49% of the total volume of produced gas.

KPO General Director, Damiano RATTI, said: “As of today, KPO’s partners have invested more than USD 17 billion into the development of Karachaganak.  At the same time, direct payments into the RoK budget reached USD 8.8 billion”.

“In developing the Karachaganak project, KPO has utilised leading production and hydrocarbon processing technology to enhance hydrocarbon recovery and ensuring maximum economic return for the Republic of Kazakhstan and the project partners”, added Damiano RATTI.

Karachaganak is one of the largest and most complex fields to operate in Kazakhstan.  Currently, there are 96 production and 16 re-injection wells in operation at the Karachaganak field, out of a total of 377 wells.

In 2012, KPO has drilled and completed some of the best liquid producing wells ever undertaken.  Besides, KPO hooked up the highest absolute number of wells in the history of the Karachaganak in any one year.

KPO is committed to sustainable development and the highest standards for environment protection in all aspects of its activity.

Since 1997, KPO’s investments into environmental activities have exceeded \\$239.4 million.  KPO fully supports initiative of the Republic of Kazakhstan regarding transition to “a green economy”.  Last year, the gas utilisation rate at Karachaganak totalled 99.87%, which is a world class achievement.

In 2012, the volume of gas flaring was a mere 0.13% of the total volume of gas produced, or 0.78 tonnes per thousand tonnes of extracted raw materials.  A comparison of these figures with averages achieved by international and European oil and gas companies demonstrates KPO’s leadership in this area.

KPO has developed and implemented its Greenhouse Gases Management Strategy, which assumes a voluntary obligation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions over a period of five years.  As a result of this strategy, more than 1 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions have been eliminated.

Emissions from the industrial operation of KPO facilities are monitored by an automatic data collection and environmental monitoring system installed at the field as well as the borders of the sanitary protection zone.  In addition, KPO monitors the air quality in areas near the Karachaganak field.

As the largest employer in the region, KPO is fulfilling its obligations for the protection of employees’ health and for the creation of long-term jobs with highly competitive salaries.  Besides, KPO puts programmes into place that are focused on promoting the professional level of local employees.

Personnel nationalisation is an important structural element in the creation of KPO’s economic heritage.  Its goal is to maximise employment opportunities for local people and invest into the professional development of Kazakh employees. Recognising the importance of this issue, KPO has developed and adopted a local employee development system to promote them to the management level in all business units.

KPO focuses on the development of talented and dedicated Kazakhstani employees, and contributes to their on going professional development.

As a result of KPO’s efforts to substitute foreign specialists with local professionals, today, local employees make up 93% of the total staff.  Overall, KPO’s Kazakhstani employees fill 69% of all management positions and 95% of the lower levels of management and skilled professions.

During 2012, about three thousand Kazakhstani specialists from KPO were enrolled in industrial safety, technical competence, management development programmes as well as personal and language skills training courses.

The total duration of training during 2012 was 346,000 hours.  KPO invested USD 13 million into this area.

Overall, in recent years KPO has put more than USD 168 million into training and development of Kazakhstani professionals using international experience, own educational resources, and though cooperation with well-known universities.

Also, KPO is actively promoting the development of suppliers of local goods and services, and implementing a number of projects to support local production.

KPO is one of the first companies in Kazakhstan to successfully introduce a local content programme.  The implementation of the Local Content Development Programme has allowed involving more than three thousand Kazakhstani companies into the development of Karachaganak.  These companies have received orders from KPO for over USD 4 billion.

In 2012, the proportion of local content in KPO contracts for the supply of goods and services reached 56% or \\$336 million in monetary term.

As Damiano RATTI has noted, “Today, Karachaganak plays a significant role in the social, economic and cultural development of the West Kazakhstan Oblast”.

“KPO’s social projects are a good example of our corporate responsibility and successful cooperation with local authorities ensuring the efficient use of Karachaganak’s potential”, added Damiano RATTI.

As the result of this established partnership, a large number of new schools, kindergartens, hospitals, as well as social and community-purpose buildings were constructed in recent years.  Hundreds of kilometres of roads were also laid.  As of today, KPO’s investments into development of WKO social infrastructure have totaled over USD 240 million.

The list and priorities for KPOs’ social projects are determined together with the Akimat of the West Kazakhstan Oblast. All projects are carried out in full compliance with the laws of the Republic of Kazakhstan. They also conform to building regulations and KPO’s internal procedures.

It should be noted that all KPO social projects are executed solely using Kazakhstani contractors, and therefore have 100% local content.

KPO’s efforts to develop of the region’s social infrastructure have been recognized at the national Paryz Corporate Social Responsibility Competition where KPO has won an award in the Best Social Project category.