ҚазРусEng

Environmental monitoring

KPO places a greater focus on environmental safety operations. In accordance with the RoQ environmental legislation, KPO has implemented a number of environmental programmes, which cover all areas of the KPO production activities. Among the core programmes, there is a Production Environmental Control (PEC) Programme developed in line with RoQ Environmental Code requirements to meet the following objectives:

 

  • obtaining reliable data about emissions and impact of production operations on the environment;
  • reducing the impact on the environment and human health;
  • rapid and proactive response on emergencies;
  • communication to stakeholders (local communities, state regulatory bodies, company partners) about the environmental activities of the Company and risks for human health.

 

As part of the PEC implementation, the environmental monitoring includes observations of both the environmental emissions — air emissions, wastewater discharge, waste treatment, accumulation and disposal, and the quality of environmental components — air, surface and ground water, and soil.

 

The PEC monitoring demonstrated that concentrations of target substances in 2022 were on a par with those observed in previous years. There were no evidences that the Karachaganak Field operations may have impacted any of environment’s components.

 

Air quality is monitored by ways of collecting and testing the samples. The job is performed by an accredited laboratory, as well as 18 stationary automatic EMS. In 2022, as part of the PEC Programme over 100,000 samples were collected, 115,000 laboratory analyses and around 28,000 measurements were completed.

 

KPO regularly monitors the production environmental control over the environmental condition at the field waste disposal facilities. In 2022, as a result of monitoring of ground water and soil at the Eco Centre Solid Industrial Waste Burial Landfill and the Temporary Liquid Drilling Waste Storage Site, as well as in checks 35A and 35B, no direct negative impact on the environmental protection components is noted. Quantitative control over the movement of waste is carried out in order to take into account the volume of burial, as well as the volumes and time of waste accumulation.

 

Air quality is assessed based on a maximum permissible concentration (MPC) specified in the sanitary and hygienic standards. To identify the level of air pollution, the recorded concentrations of monitored components are compared against the maximum permissible concentrations and then the values are expressed in percentage.

 

MPC of an air pollutant is a concentration, which does not cause a direct or indirect lifelong negative impact on the present or the future generations, does not reduce the working capacity of a person and his/her health and does not deteriorate the sanitary and living conditions of human beings.

 

CASE STUDY:

ONLINE AIR MONITORING SYSTEM

Context / short description:

Ecomonitor portal is an online Air Monitoring data transmission system, developed by KPO in 2013 as part of the «KPO B.V. EMS Ecological Information Post Creation» project for prompt informing the RSE Kazhydromet on atmospheric air condition in Berezovka village and timely decision-making in event of complaints from the communities.

Goals:

  • The information system would allow for real time transmission of air monitoring data in tabular and graphical form to the WQO regulatory agencies for further analysis and decision-making;
  • Increasing transparency over KPO production activity and its impact on atmospheric air and improving interaction with regulatory agencies.

Solution / actions:

In 2013, KPO developed the Ecomonitor portal with an online access for WQO Kazhydromet branch to KPO atmospheric air monitoring data from the two environmental monitoring stations EMS-013 and EMS-014, installed in Berezovka village.

In June 2018, KPO established an online transmission of the air quality data to WQO Environment Department from all 18 automatic EMSs, installed both at the SPZ boundary and within the Karachaganak field.

In 2020, as part of the corporate geographic information system (GIS), KPO updated the Ecomonitor portal with a number of new features such as:

  • significantly reduced time for collection and display of monitored data from the EMS;
  • updated mode of atmospheric air quality reporting for the selected period (day, month, year) whereby reports are created much faster;
  • submission of data through an interactive map that visually shows location of the automatic environmental monitoring stations, the Karachaganak Field SPZ boundaries and adjacent inhabited areas;
  • EMS status visualized in real time (normal operation, calibration, power outage, etc.);
  • portal user authentication changed from local to domain such as to improve the protection of the transmitted data.

In December 2020, KPO specialists presented a new version of the Ecomonitor and trained WQO Environment Department employees to operate the portal. Also, authentication data was handed over to the designated staff.

Result:

In result of the project implementation, WQO state agencies gained a real-time access to atmospheric air data from the Company EMSs.

The online monitoring data transmission to regulatory agencies contributes KPO’s fulfilling its obligation in the fields of health, safety and environment, including:

  • ensuring environmental safety and minimizing KPO’s impact on human health and the environment;
  • building confidence in KPO environmental data on the part of the regulators.

Taking into account the requirement of the new RoQ Environmental Code, for implementation of automated monitoring systems, KPO’s decision to establish an Atmospheric Air Quality Monitoring System within the Karachaganak Field and subsequent data transmission to regulatory agencies was ahead of its time.