OREANDA-NEWS. February 04, 2014. Karachaganak Petroleum Operating B.V. (KPO) has announced the operation results for the year of 2013.

KPO General Director, Damiano Ratti, said: “I am pleased to announce that KPO has sustained our ‘World Class’ safety performance in 2013 by reducing our lost time incident (LTI) rates as compared to 2012. This performance is benchmarked against other Oil & Gas companies within the Oil & Gas Producer’s (OGP) Association and this achievement signifies KPO personnel’s commitment to safety, health, and environmental practices and standards.

“KPO actively promotes a culture where the ownership of safety is shared across the organisation and with our contract partners.  KPO aims to continuously improve its HSE performance through compliance with HSE standards, managing workplace risks and careful planning and monitoring of our operations”, said Damiano Ratti.

“In 2013 KPO produced 136.3 million barrels of oil equivalent of stabilised and unstabilised liquid hydrocarbons, gas and fuel gas.  Above that 8.57 billion cubic meters of sour dry gas were re-injected, a volume equivalent to approximately 49% of the total volume of produced gas”, said Damiano Ratti.

“As of today, KPO’s partners have invested around \\$17.6 billion into the development of Karachaganak field, whilst direct payments into the RoK budget have reached \\$10.3 billion”, he said.

Karachaganak oil and gas condensate field is one of the largest and most complex fields to operate in Kazakhstan.  Currently, there are 95 production and 17 sour gas re-injection wells in operation at the Karachaganak field, out of a total of 379 wells.

Karachaganak not only represents vast resources, its development has also brought enormous benefits to Kazakhstan’s economy and the communities within the West Kazakhstan Oblast.  In developing Karachaganak, KPO has utilised leading production and processing technology to enhance hydrocarbon recovery and harness significant value for the Republic of Kazakhstan.

“KPO remains committed to Republic of Kazakhstan’s sustainable development agenda through infrastructure enhancements, exemplary environmental performance, wide-scale social initiatives and the development of local capacity”, said Damiano Ratti.

“KPO fully supports initiative of the Republic of Kazakhstan regarding transition to “a green economy”.  In 2013, the gas utilisation rate at Karachaganak totalled 99.84%, which is a world class achievement.  The volume of flared gas was a mere 0.16% of the total volume of gas produced, or 0.94 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.  Overall, since 1998, KPO’s investments into environmental activities have exceeded \\$275.2 million”, said Damiano Ratti.

Emissions from KPO industrial facilities are monitored by an automatic data collection and environmental monitoring system installed at the field as well as at the borders of the sanitary protection zone.  In addition, KPO monitors the air quality in areas adjacent to 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 professional development of local employees”, added Damiano Ratti.

As a result of KPO’s nationalisation programme local employees today fill 100% of the skilled and clerical positions and 94% of professional and supervisory roles.  At the managerial level, 68% of positions are filled by local employees.

During 2013, about four thousand Kazakhstani specialists from KPO were enrolled in industrial safety, technical competence, management development programmes as well as personal and language skills training courses.

Overall, in recent years KPO has put more than USD178 million into training and development of Kazakhstani professionals using international experience, own educational resources, and though cooperation with well-known RoK and overseas educational institutions.

“KPO is one of the first companies in Kazakhstan to successfully introduce a local content programme, which has allowed involving more than three thousand Kazakhstani companies into the development of Karachaganak.  These companies have received orders from KPO for over \\$4 billion”, added Damiano Ratti.

In 2013, the proportion of local content in KPO contracts for the supply of goods and services reached 50.15% or USD 461.1 million in monetary term.

In addition, every year KPO implements a big number of large social infrastructure development projects in WKO.  The list of priority projects is defined by the West Kazakhstan Oblast administration.  The KPO social development programme is focused on the construction of healthcare, education, culture and sports facilities.  All projects are carried out by Kazakh contractors only.  To date, KPO has allocated USD 270.97 million to social infrastructure projects in WKO.

As Damiano Ratti noted, “While delivering on its operation commitments, KPO as a responsible corporate citizen, works towards generating maximum social and economic benefits from the Karachaganak field for the local communities and the Republic of Kazakhstan as a whole”.

KPO’s efforts to develop the region’s social infrastructure have been recognized at the national Paryz Corporate Social Responsibility Competition where KPO has won several prestigious awards, including the 2013 Silver Paryz Award in the Best Social Project category.