OREANDA-NEWS. July 02, 2013. Karachaganak Petroleum Operating B.V. (KPO) held public hearings chaired by the Secretary of Burlin District Maslikhat (local Parliament) at Burlin District Akimat office related to presentation of the 2014 Environment Protective Measures Plan. Also, public hearings on the same topic were held on 14 June in the Bolshoi Chagan Village, where the pumping station of the Karachaganak-Bolshoi Chagan-Atyrau export pipeline is located.

The 2014 Environmental Protective Measure Plan consists of 10 main sections and has 31 actions.

Representatives from the Oblast Environment Department, as well as the Secretaries and Deputies of Maslikhat, authorities representatives of the Burlin Akimat and Karachaganak Field adjacent villages, members of initiative activist groups, community and mass media representatives took part in the hearings.Since beginning of   operatorship over the Karachaganak field, from 1998 to June 2013, KPO have invested its own funds for implementation of environmental protective measures in total amount of 34.3 billion tenge.

Successful implementation of activities aimed to air protection allowed significant reduction of volumes of pollutant emissions into the air generated as result of hydrocarbons production, including the following: pollutant emissions reduced by 16% during 2006 – 2012, specific emissions reduced by 25% (per tonnes/ktonnes of hydrocarbons), gas utilization reached 99.87%.

In 2012, KPO handed over the recovered 49.1 hectares land of the Gryphon area to State ownership.

More than 1.3 million of trees and bushes have been planted in the area of more than 500 ha within KOGCF and SPZ area.

Total costs of environment protection plan implementation in 2014 will reach 2.7 billion tenge. KPO representatives noted that water resources conservation, wastes management and consumption, also air protection are the key priorities.

In addition, KPO Sustainability Manager Zulfiya Muzafarova made a presentation and announced the publication of "KPO Sustainability Report for 2012", copies of which were distributed to all attendees of the hearing.

In the follow-up discussions, the community, government authorities and mass media representatives had an opportunity to ask questions about 2014 KPO Environment Protective Measures Plan and to make their suggestions and remarks. All of them will be included into the final Minutes of the public hearings.

As a whole, the 2014 Environment Protective Measures Plan received the public’s approval, as it was at the earlier at the public hearings at the Bolshoi Chagan Village on 14 June 2013.

The information on KPO environmental activity is available at www.kpo.kz , in mass media and KPO Sustainability Report annually issued by the Company and verified by Ernst & Young LLP.
Notes to editors:

Karachaganak Petroleum Operating B.V. (KPO) is a joint venture between BG Group (29.25%), Eni (29.25%), Chevron (18%), LUKOIL (13.5%) and KazMunaiGas (10%).

KPO oversees the expansion and development of the Karachaganak field – one of the world’s largest oil and gas condensate fields - which is located in northwest Kazakhstan covering an area of over 280 square kilometres. It holds estimated hydrocarbons initially in place (HIIP) of 9 billion barrels of condensate and 48 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of gas, with estimated gross reserves of over 2.4 billion barrels of condensate and 16 tcf of gas.

Since the signing of the FPSA, KPO’s Parent Companies have invested more than USD 18 billion into developing the field, applying industry leading technology aimed at maximizing sustainable economic value.

This is being implemented in accordance with the highest safety and environmental protection standards.

When benchmarked against its industry peers, Karachaganak now clearly rates within the top quartile with respect to gas utilisation.  Overall gas utilisation achieved by KPO in 2012 made up 99.87%, which is a world-class performance.