Kazakhstan, Astana, Sept. 7 / Trend A.Maratov /
The discharged employees of the Kazakh mining company Uzenmunaigas (UMG) of the KazMunaiGas Exploration Production (KMG EP) will be assisted in getting a job in contracting companies, Kazakh National Welfare Fund" Samruk-Kazyna "Board Chairman Timur Kulibayev told journalists today.
"The labor dispute was resolved at this time in the legal field in favor of the employer - KMG EP. A few dozen people were dismissed, and we cannot employ them again, as they had violated labor laws. But we will assist them in job placement to contractors," Kulibayev said.
Kulibayev confirmed that a reduction will be observed in the company's annual production, but noted that daily production will be restored to the former regime in the near future.
The KMG EP reported that since early 2011 underproduction compared to the consolidated plan exceeds 600,000 tons which has been caused by a number of emergency power cuts in the fields and the illegal strike at UMG, partly offset by higher than planned production at other Company's assets.
"Taking into consideration that it will take time to recover the level of daily production to the planned level, the expected underproduction compared to the consolidated plan is currently expected to reach 800 thousand tons for the year, or 6% of the consolidated production volume of KMG EP (including the share in production of jointly controlled entities where production is expected to exceed the plan for the year)," the report reads.
KMG EP is among the top three Kazakh oil and gas producers. The overall production in 2010 was 13.3mt (an average of 270kbopd) of crude oil, including the Company's share in Kazgermunai, CCEL (JSC "Karazhanbasmunai") and PKI (PetroKazakhstan Inc.). The total volume of proved and probable reserves, as at the end of 2010 was 232mt (1.7bn bbl), including shares in the associates - about 2.2 bn barrels.