Management of waste
Waste handling in KPO is focused on reducing real and potential hazards of waste generated during the Company’s production activities on people and the environment.
Our targets are to treat and recycle waste at our facilities, to cut down waste transfer to landfills, to reduce negative impact from burials, as well as to explore and apply new methods and technologies.
The results of our work to minimize the risks of the Company’s production waste impact on the environment are presented below in the table and further in the text.
Tab. 42. Targets in waste management
|
Our 2021 targets |
Target achievement |
Actions taken in 2021 |
Targets for 2022 |
|
Ensure implementation of 10 activities scheduled for 2021 as per KPO’s 2021–2023 Waste Management Programme |
Completed |
All activities scheduled for 2021 as per the Waste Management Programme were implemented throughout the year. |
Ensure implementation of activities scheduled for 2022 as per the Waste Management Programmes both for Karachaganak Field and Bolshoi Chagan Ops and Atyrau OPS |
|
Carry out pilot testing of clay drilling cuttings |
Postponed |
Due to the arisen organizational and financial challenges for pilot plant tests, these activities were not performed in 2021. |
|
Why is it important to us?
If handled unsafely, a hazardous production waste, its storage and disposal sites, may pose a threat to the environment and cause pollution of air, underground and surface waters, soils and vegetation, which may have a negative impact on the environment and the health of people.
Negative environmental impacts are prevented through compliance with the requirements of environmental legislation, i.e. burial and accumulation of waste on dedicated sites, avoidance of excessive burial and accumulation of waste, as well as timely removal of waste from the places of accumulation.
As per the monitoring work programme, KPO performs regular production environmental control (PEC) over the environmental conditions at the waste burial and accumulation sites in the field. In 2021, the monitoring did not reveal direct negative impact on the environmental components.
In the framework of the PEC, quantitative control is exercised over the movement of waste in order to account for the burial volumes, as well as the volumes and time of waste accumulation.
KPO processes related to production, processing and transportation of raw materials, as well as the use of special equipment, materials and other required resources, inevitably involve generation of waste.
Measures taken by KPO to reduce the volume of generated waste, the Ventures’ compliance with environmental safety rules during the accumulation, storage, and transportation, activities for segregation, reuse, recycling and reduction of volume and hazardous properties of waste, as well as environmentally friendly burial – all these enable significant mitigation of the adverse impact on people and the environment.
The KPO Waste Management Programme for 2021–2023 provides for indicators and measures for the gradual reduction of the accumulated and generated waste volumes and their hazardous properties.
The Company applies the following waste management methods:
- waste recovery to process stream;
- waste treatment at the Eco Centre facilities;
- waste burial at the Eco Centre facilities;
- waste handover to specialised contractor organizations for further processing, reuse or destruction.
In 2021, the volume of waste generated at KPO facilities totalled 19,660 tonnes. Compared with 2020, the amount of KPO waste in 2021 has decreased by 13,518 tonnes, which was mainly due to the reduction of the KOGCF drilling programme, and the shutdown of the Rotary Kiln Incinerator for repair. Graph 24 shows all types of waste generated in KPO.
According to the Unified republican form of the waste information reporting system, the total volume of waste generated in 2021 included both wastes generated and treated.
Graph 24. Waste generated at KPO facilities in 2019–2021, tonnes
The KPO Eco Centre comprises five waste treatment facilities, as well as a Landfill for its safe disposal.
In 2021 the volume of waste generated totalled
WASTE TREATMENT AND BURIAL
Treatment of the Company’s production and consumption waste is carried out at the Eco Centre facilities or the waste management complex. The facility ensures cost-efficient and environmentally safe recycling and treatment of solid waste and fluids, and is considered to be an example of the best drilling waste management practice in the West Qazaqstan Oblast.
Drilling wastes are treated by means of technologies, which allow not only reducing their volume and hazard characteristics, but also recovering valuable components from them, and treating the waste for further reuse. Waste recycling back into production process exercised by the Company is the best possible way to re-use the generated waste.
The KPO Eco Centre comprises five waste treatment facilities, as well as a Landfill for its safe disposal.
In 2021, KPO has completed all the activities scheduled in the 2021–2023 Waste Management Programme, including segregation, sorting, reuse, processing, reduction of volumes and hazardous properties, except for the treatment of solid waste in the Rotary-Kiln Incinerator due to the unscheduled long-term repairs of certain process parts of the unit. Handover of large-sized metal scrap as recyclable material to RSI Kapitalneftegaz has been postponed till 2022.
During 2021, the following activities were carried out at the Eco Centre
Tab. 43. Eco Centre facilities and recycling activities
|
Eco Centre Units |
Waste treatment activities in 2021 |
|
Thermo-mechanical cutting cleaning facility (TCC) |
Owing to the separation of base oil and water from the treated oil-based drill cuttings, the quantity of KPO disposed waste was reduced by 13 % from the initially generated volume. |
|
In 2021, 6,638 tonnes of waste were treated, 882 tonnes of base oil and water were separated, and 5,756 tonnes of waste treated at the TCC were disposed at the Solid Industrial Waste Landfill. |
|
|
General Purpose Incinerator (GPI) |
By incineration of waste at the GPI, the amount of waste was reduced by an average 89 %. In 2021, 793 tonnes of waste were sent for incineration, following which 86 tonnes of ash were disposed at the Eco-Centre Solid industrial waste landfill. |
|
Liquid Treatment Plant (LTP) |
In 2021, 6,110 tonnes of liquid waste were treated. The process resulted in 4,287 tonnes of treated brines and muds, which were sent for re-use – preparation of drilling brines and muds. |
|
Waste Segregation Unit (WSU) |
In 2021, out of 1,128 tonnes of solid domestic waste, 790 tonnes were sent to General Purpose Incinerator for incineration, 180 tonnes, including waste paper, metal scrap, glass and plastic were sorted for handing over to the specialised organizations for treatment and reuse. 217 tonnes of solid domestic waste was handed over to specialised organizations for disposal at the Solid Domestic Waste Landfill. 129 tonnes of food waste was handed over to specialised organization for processing. |
|
Solid Industrial Waste Landfill |
16 cells of the Solid industrial Waste Landfill were capped and closed at the end of 2021. |
The solid and liquid drilling waste generated in 2021 amounted to
In 2021, the Company continued extraction of wastes from the old Solid Waste and Spent Drilling Fluids Storage Site for further treatment at the Thermo-mechanical cutting cleaning facility and disposal at the Solid Industrial Waste Landfill. The waste is disposed at the Landfill in compliance with the RoQ environmental legislation.
In 2021, 4,308 tonnes (as compared to 1,220 tonnes in 2020) were sent for treatment from the Solid Waste and Spent Drilling Liquids Storage Site. The increase in the wastes treated at the TCC results from the decrease in the drilling waste and the capability to accept more waste from the Site for treatment. Processing of waste from the old Site is planned to continue in 2022.
Table 44 shows the waste handling methods used by the Company in 2021.
Tab. 44. KPO waste handling methods in 2021, tonnes
|
No. |
Waste handling method |
Generated hazardous waste |
Generated non-hazardous waste |
Domestic waste |
TOTAL |
|
1. |
Waste balance at the beginning of 2021 |
341,416 |
3 |
0 |
341,419 |
|
2. |
Generated during the reporting year |
14,957 |
3,574 |
1,128 |
19,659 |
|
3. |
Reused at the enterprise |
4,740 |
0 |
0 |
4,740 |
|
4. |
Treated at facilities |
14,301 |
82 |
864 |
15,247 |
|
5. |
Incinerated in the General Purpose Incinerator (without power generation) |
3 |
0 |
790 |
793 |
|
6. |
Disposed and buried at KPO waste disposal sites |
12,322 |
0 |
0 |
12,322 |
|
7. |
Handed over to specialised contractors |
2,569 |
2,751 |
347 |
5,667 |
|
8. |
Waste balance at the end of 2021 |
337,711 |
530 |
1 |
338,242 |
The KPO waste is mainly produced during the wells’ drilling and workover activities. Concurrently, the water or oil base of the drilling cuttings depends on the type of the drilling mud used for the well operations. The solid and liquid drilling waste generated in 2021 amounted to 6,647 tonnes (58 % of the initially generated waste, i.e. waste volume before treatment). Due to COVID-19 restrictions in 2020 and 2021, the drilling operations were considerably declined.
Table No. 45 shows the main types of drilling waste broken down by handling methods. As table shows, only waterbased mud and brines are subject to disposal at the Eco-Centre cells 35 A/B, and the water-based drill cuttings to be buried at the Landfill. Oil-based drilling cuttings are subject to burying after pre-treatment and extraction of the oil base.
Tab. 45. Waste generated from well operations by handling methods, 2019 – 2021
|
No. |
Type of waste |
Generated quantity, tonnes |
Handling methods |
||
|
2021 |
2020 |
2019 |
|||
|
1. |
Spent water-based drilling mud |
382 |
4,125 |
427 |
Treatment at Liquid treatment plant (LTP) |
|
383 |
1,020 |
1,014 |
Disposal |
||
|
2. |
Water-based drilling cuttings |
987 |
533 |
925 |
Burial |
|
0 |
0 |
182 |
Thermal treatment in the Rotary Kiln Incinerator (RKI) |
||
|
3. |
Spent oil-based drilling mud |
432 |
818 |
2,676 |
Treatment at the Thermo-mechanical cutting cleaning facility (TCC) and Liquid treatment plant (LTP) |
|
4. |
Oil-based drilling cuttings |
2,776 |
5,316 |
9,022 |
Treated at the TCC with extraction of oil base, water and followed by the burial of the solid part, thermal treatment in Rotary-Kiln Incinerator (RKI) |
|
5. |
Spent brines |
1,438 |
1,932 |
4,866 |
Treatment at TCC and LTP, thermal treatment in RKI |
|
189 |
296 |
2,837 |
Disposal |
||
|
6. |
Oil cuttings |
60 |
11 |
44 |
Thermal treatment in the RKI, treatment at TCC |
Within the contract terms, the Company hands over part of the waste for recycling to specialised contractors, who make their own decision on further waste handling methods once the waste has been accepted from KPO, and report on its transfer to third parties on a quarterly basis. Depending on the type, specialised enterprises hand over the waste for treatment with subsequent production of consumer goods, demercurization, regeneration, thermal treatment, incineration, physical and chemical treatment, dismantling into component parts with further transfer to concerned enterprises as recyclables.
Based on the Article 351 of the RoQ Environmental Code that prohibits disposal of waste plastic, plastic, polyethylene and polyethylene terephthalate packaging, waste paper, cardboard, paper waste, glass cullet at the Landfills, the Company carries out sorting and segregation of such waste in rented buildings with engagement of contractors that lease office buildings to KPO. These types of waste are then handed over to specialized enterprises to be used as recyclables.
Since 2011 till the end of 2021, for the whole period of the waste paper segregation, about 740 tonnes of the waste paper had been collected and handed over to local enterprises to produce consumer goods.
The segregation of spent batteries was arranged in all Company office premises. In 2021, 91 kg of batteries was collected.
In 2021,
of batteries collected
Since 2011 till the end of 2021, for the whole period of the waste paper segregation, about 740 tonnes of the waste paper had been collected and handed over to local enterprises to produce consumer goods.
