Print versionPetroKazakhstan Kumkol Resources organized a media tour of its production and social facilities based in the Kyzylorda and South Kazakhstan regions for representatives of several national, regional and city mass media last week.
During the tour journalists learned about achievements of the oil company in the industrial sector and its aid programmes that are part of its social responsibility. The first stop in the itinerary was the Kyzylorda city orphanage. The orphanage was founded in 1920 and it currently houses 34 children aged one month to four years. PKKR has been providing financial support to this institution for 15 years: for example, it has allocated money for its renovation (new windows and doors were put in and summer playgrounds were built). The oil company's employees give the children presents all the time and participate in their festive matinees. This time, in the run up to the International Children’s Day, PKKR's employees presented the orphanage with a wonderful mini-van. They also presented the children with sweets and soft toys to the kids’ great joy. Fang Jiazhong, chairman of the board of directors, PKKR, has said that the company intends to continue providing support to the region's population through its sponsorship projects in the future.
The orphanage's Chief Doctor Gulnaz Anasbayeva and Deputy Head of the Regional Health Care Department Sapar Rakhmensheyev expressed their gratitude to the PKKR's management for the wonderful present. A minivan is indispensable for an institution like this.
Next, PKKR's Chairman of the Board of Directors Fang Jiazhong told his audience about the company's achievements and plans in a presentation that was held at the Aray-Sunrise children's recreational camp. The event was attended by Deputy Mayor of Kyzylorda Region Markhabat Zhayimbetov. The company built a total of 736 wells at its oil fields with 495 of them producing oil, the company said at the meeting. A total of 16 exploratory and appraisal wells were drilled last year while the total oil production was 6.2m tonnes which means that PKKR fulfilled its plan despite the financial crisis. In total, the company increased its licensed exploration territories by 8 times in the past three years. Three prospective oil fields – Eastern Kumkol, Northern Nuraly and Kolzhan that will allow to significantly increase PKKR's recoverable reserves were discovered. In general, there is much more work held on exploration of oil fields at the moment. Over 95% of gas is utilized since 2009. In addition to other plans, the company expects to construct oil production facilities at the north-western Kyzylkiye, expand the group installation at Kumkol, pave with asphalt the section of road from Kyzylorda to Kumkol and modernize infrastructure at the oil fields this year.
One of PKKR's priority tasks is to ensure safe occupational conditions, to protect health of the company's employees and the population residing in the regions where the company's production sites are located, and to preserve a wholesome environment. In addition to other measures, the company developed an occupational safety and security management system for these purposes and it observes all relevant provisions, procedures and instructions. It also developed a declaration of industrial safety of facilities. The company holds training on safety rules on a regular basis; it held certification of labour conditions at production facilities that were commissioned last year and two years ago. The company completed renovation of the site for storage of cool waste and fully utilized liquid cool waste.
In regards to social projects, PKKR and the Kyzylorda region’s mayor’s office signed another cooperation memorandum for the total amount of 450m tenge last year. In addition to last year’s agreement, the company invested over 161m tenge in social projects. PetroKazakhstan continues to support talented young people. Based on the results of the competition in 2009, 13 young people received grants for studying at the Petroleum and Gas Institute in China and at Kazakhstan’s best universities.
PetroKazakhstan is one of the biggest tax payers in the country. Taxes paid by PKKR’s business units make up the larger part of the Kyzylorda and South Kazakhstan regions’ budgets.
Deputy Mayor of the region M.Zhayimbetov expressed his gratitude to PetroKazakhstan's management for its significant contribution to the region's social and economic development. A collective agreement between PKKR's management and its trade union was signed at the meeting. The new agreement foresees measures on increasing occupational safety and improving social conditions of labour for the company's employees. It is worth noting that in general PetroKazakhstan always does everything that is necessary for these purposes. There are 1,730 employees currently working at PKKR and the company allocates a monthly ecological coefficient for 1,427 employees. Moreover, whenever an employee goes on vacation, he or she is given an annual financial help for health care – over 210m tenge per year in total. A total of 264 employees receive supplementary payment for working in harmful conditions. By a decision of the company's management, additional financial help (approximately seven million tenge) was provided to employees for various objective reasons last year: illnesses of employees and their families, accidents and so on. Moreover, PKKR pays for tuition of its employees who study by correspondence and relevant financial help is provided to children of the company's employees who study at universities and colleges.
Significant attention is paid to improving the living conditions of employees residing in rotational villages. A rotational village at the Aryskum oil field increased by 200 places while the one at Kyzylkiye increased by 50 places. Starting from last year, the company has been renting four modern comfortable buses of Toyota brand for driving its employees to work and back. The vehicles are air-conditioned. PKKR cares about its employees' healthy lifestyles. Employees and members of their families residing in cities work out and do sports at the company's sports center. There are gyms and sports playgrounds in all of the rotational villages. PKKR plans to build a new gym at one of its oil fields and put up greenhouses where vegetables and fruit will be cultivated. Thanks to the new collective agreement, the employees' occupational conditions will improve further.
Vice-President for Public Affairs and Administration Chen Dayou said that one of PKKR’s social projects is the Aray-Sunrise recreational camp that the company sponsors fully – it allocates about 98m tenge for these purposes annually. A total of 1,080 children with 40% among them being children of PKKR’s employees can spend their summer holidays there free of charge.
The camp has already started its work and representatives of the Junior Achievement social fund continue to teach basics of economics and entrepreneurship to school students coming there from all over Kazakhstan. There are 19 interest groups at Aray-Sunrise and the most popular among the adolescents is the decorative and applied arts group. Journalists had an opportunity to see the children working in the following groups: beadweaving, crochet work, making of plush toys, clothes designing, wood carving, carpet weaving, pottery, embroidery, visual arts and others that help develop esthetical taste and fantasy in children.
A trip to Kumkol
The next day the group of journalists visited the Kumkol oil field located 200 km away from Kyzylorda. The company has created comfortable conditions for employees at the rotational village: there is a club, a gym (one can work out and play table tennis there), a confectionary shop, a room for playing pool, a library, a museum and a sports playground. Sports competitions are regularly held there, including a fishing competition with the fish being bred at the pond (the fish that is caught during the competition is immediately released back into the water).
It is remarkable that the oil company's employees remember the people who worked there at the very beginning. A terminus of Murat Salamatov who once headed the Yuzhneftegaz Company was put up in the village.
There was a news conference afterwards where the Director of Production Zhu Po Mi told journalists about the company’s operations on Kumkol, Southern Kumkol, Kyzylkiya, Aryskum and Maybulak oil fields. Oil produced at the last three fields is transported via a pipeline and by oil tankers to Kumkol. PetroKazakhstan plans to extract oil at Northern Nuraly, Eastern Kumkol, Southern Kyzylkiya and North-western Kyzylkiya oil fields. «Kumkol is equipped with preliminary water discharge units, gas utilization station, gas compressor station, unified oil treatment and pumping plant, and modular cluster pump station used for processing of oil, gas and water. PKKR is one of the first companies in Kazakhstan that implemented a gas utilization program. The gas produced at Kumkol is transported through pipelines to a gaz utilization plant where the blue fuel is processed in gas turbine units and electrical power is produced. The gas remaining at the gas compressor station is reinjected into the reservoir. Gas utilization plants are also operating at Aryskum, Kyzylkiya and Maybulak oil fields», Zhu Po Mi said.
Journalists visited the above mentioned facilities equipped with modern equipment and learned how employees produce oil and what security measures are taken by them in order to preserve subsurface structure. For example, water separated from oil is reinjected into the reservoir. As the oil company's employees said, the associated gas utilization program solves a number of important environmental problems: it eliminates flaring and emission of gas, reduces the possibility of oil spill and soil contamination and significantly increases industrial fire safety. In the last five years PetroKazakhstan implemented several large projects on collection, transportation and reinjection of associated gas. On the whole, PKKR's production capacities allow utilizing associated gas by generating electrical power, reinjection of the blue fuel into the reservoir and utilization of gas for production's own needs, that is to supply it to fixed oil treatment units. A total of 80.2m dollars was spent on gas utilization projects implemented at Kumkol. A number of projects including construction of collector systems at oil fields, in-field roads, oil storage tanks and drilling and completion of wells, were implemented with the purpose of development of oil fields and accompanying infrastructure. During the past year PKKR sold over 1.9m tonnes of petroleum products including 1.24m sold on the domestic market and 704,000 tonnes exported. PetroKazakhstan participates in the annual program that supplies agricultural producers with diesel fuel at a discounted price for spring and autumn field works.
The next stop is at the Baldauren kindergarten in the Zhanakorgan district. It was opened with financial support from PetroKazakhstan Kumkol Resources nine years ago. The oil company helped this kindergarten all these years: money was allocated to pay salaries to teachers, purchase food products, bedding, toys, relevant inventory and hold major renovation. PKKR paid for complete restoration of the heating system and construction of metallic fencing at the kindergarten. Children who start school receive backpacks and school supplies every year. Earlier the company presented the kindergarten with a GAZel car, a colour TV set, two video cassette players, Yamaha musical instrument and a hifi system.
Strategic Communications Director of PKKR Assan Kozhakov warmly congratulated children on the upcoming International Children’s Day and wished strong health and happiness to them and employees of the kindergarten. A group of children who were starting school this year received backpacks.
Mayor of Zhanakorgan District Bekmyrza Yelamanov and the kindergarten's staff thanked PetroKazakhstan's management for its help. Baldauren's pupils staged a concert program for guests. We also went to the sunny Turkestan that day where we visited the grand architectural monument – the mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi, saw ancient mosques, an oriental bath-house and gates and saw a collection of exhibit items in a museum. The delegation headed for Shymkent later in the evening.
A book of good deeds
During the second day in the South Kazakhstan region, there was a tour of PetroKazakhstan Oil Products' production site, the oil refinery located not far from Shymkent. Here the group of journalists had a chance to see the operator's station, oil loading racks, tanks and other equipment. The plant was constructed in 1985 and the Chinese National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) acquired 100% of its shares five years ago. Given the favourable geographic location and high technical capacities, the company can supply petroleum products to the domestic and foreign markets. The Shymkent oil refinery's estimated refining capacity is 5.25m tonnes of oil per year. The plant refines oil produced by PKKR and other companies and manufactures about 35% of all the petroleum products produced in Kazakhstan. It is one of the three oil refineries in the country.
Afterwards, a news conference was organized with the participation of PKOP's Vice-President Jiang Shi who told the audience about the enterprise's operations. The partnership currently produces several brands of high-quality petrol and diesel fuel, vacuum gasoil, fuel oil, jet fuel and liquefied gas. PetroKazakhstan's products are of high quality thanks to the introduction of modern refining processes and high quality of Kumkol oil. The plant refined over four million tonnes of crude oil last year. PKOP also pays great attention to safe and reliable production and, thanks to this, it has zero indicator of mortality and injuries. The company's management continues to take measures on minimizing production waste and decreasing the harmful impact of the plant's industrial activity on the environment. Last year the company implemented a number of investment projects for the amount of 2.9bn tenge. These projects were directed at improving technical capacities of production and health and safety methods. There will be a major renovation of existing units at the plant this year.
PKOP continues its activities in the framework of social responsibility of business. It signs annual cooperation memorandums with the South Kazakhstan region's mayor's office. The oil company allocated 150m tenge for social projects this year. It is worth noting that PKOP is the largest tax payer in the South Kazakhstan region. The company's human resources policy gives preference to employing local specialists and involving local organizations. Jobs are offered both to residents of the city and neighbouring districts. PKOP currently employs 1,310 people while over a thousand more of employees of contractor companies work in production. The enterprise participates in professional training and retraining of personnel, as well as finances educational programs.
Jiang Shi answers journalists' questions
Another heartwarming event took place after the news conference – it was the opening of a new canteen located on PKOP's territory. The management does everything to ensure that employees of the plant feel comfortable.
PetroKazakhstan's good deeds are highly appreciated in the South Kazakhstan region as well. The annual charity action titled «Kazakhstan's women against poverty» has been launched there and this year's event is directed at creation of jobs for mothers of large and low-income families. The event was organized by the commission for women's affairs and family-demographic policy under the auspices of the mayor's office of the South Kazakhstan region and the South Kazakhstan regional center for supporting women and children. PKKR also contributed to this action by presenting sewing equipment to public associations of the Saryagash, Makhtaral and Suzak districts of the South Kazakhstan region and district centers of Kentau and Arys. Thanks to the new sewing machines, women can set up their own shops.
A.Kozhakov, PKKR's strategic communications director, congratulated women on this remarkable event and wished them success in their work. The event's participants thanked PetroKazakhstan's personnel for its care and attention.
The reading of the heavy book of PKKR's good deeds will require a lot of time because it has hundreds of pages. It is about people and organizations who have received help from the company. It is remarkable that the oil company takes care of children all the time. The pupils of the Sayram orphanage #4 that we visited are very lucky because the company has been taking care of them for 15 years already. There are currently 150 orphans and children who are no longer under their parents' custody (their age varies from 7 to 17 years) at the orphanage.
The children met PetroKazakhstan's employees cordially, with claps as one would greet old friends. Judging by the decent surroundings in the orphanage and well-dressed and smiling children, this institution is doing quite well.
"PetroKazakhstan Kumkol Resources Company always helps us. The oil company's employees presented us with a bus, exercise machines, computers, jungle gym, furniture and clothes for the children. They make children's lives brighter and happier. We are forever grateful to PKKR's management. Children are our future and it is great that there are people who are not indifferent to their fates", the orphanage's director, Khanbibi Abdukadyrova who everybody calls Big Mama here, shares with us.
This time the oil company's employees also gave the children a present – an expensive video camera and now children have a reason to set up a new interest group.
«We want your future to be bright and all your dreams to become a reality. We want your life to be successful. If your dreams are fulfilled you will justify our hopes and we will be grateful to you for this», A.Kozhakov said addressing the children.
The children staged an interesting concert program with original songs and dances in front of their guests.
The last institution that we visited was the regional Youth House where the oil company's employees met teachers and the young people living there. PKKR made yet another good deed here: in order for young girls to have some work, PetroKazakhstan gave them three sewing machines and fabric last year and now the girls successfully use this equipment to get their business going.
Informal talk started over a cup of tea during which teachers and young people under state care told the guests how they worked and lived and about their plans. Many of the young people dream of finding a good job, assure their future and hope that they will be given assistance on this issue. Well, this is a normal human desire and PKKR has its own ideas about it.
In memory of the meeting, the generous oil company's employees presented the young people with a colour TV set. In general, the media tour turned out to be interesting and informative. Mass media representatives had a chance to get a close look at PKKR's achievements in its industry and social projects. Of course, the company does not plan to be content with what it has achieved and the company will undoubtedly be even more useful to the society in the future.
/K.Abdrakhmanova «Syr Boyi», N.Niyazova «Khalyk»
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