Based on the outcomes of the fugitive GHG Emissions Monitoring Campaign from 2015 to 2019 it was identified that the actual GHG (methane) emissions are significantly lower (by 93%) than GHG emission volumes calculated in line with the Guidelines on GHG Air Emissions Calculation for Gas Production, Transportation and Storage Facilities. Based on the provisions of the Article 94-11 of the RoQ Environmental Code and ST RQ GOST R ISO 14064-1-2010, KPO took a decision to develop its own methodology that would allow to utilize the outcomes of the monitoring and therefore minimize indeterminacy in future calculations of fugitive GHG emissions at the Karachaganak field facilities.

KPO’s own methodology will support the delivery of the following objectives:

• It will enable for calculations of actual fugitive GHG emissions at a more advanced level based on the screening and monitoring data,
• It can be utilized during annual GHG emissions inventory at the Karachaganak field production facilities.

Considering the internal developed materials and based on the provisions of the Guidelines EPA-453/R-95-017, KPO Environmental Department has done huge work to develop and implement the Fugitive GHG Emissions Calculation Methodology. For this purpose, the following materials were studied and taken into consideration:

• Equipment Leak Evaluation Guidance materials issued by the USA Environmental Protection Agency (EPA-453/R-95-017).
• KPO Internal Fugitive Emissions Monitoring procedures and Fugitive Emissions Calculation Procedure.
• KPC, Unit-2 and Unit-3 fugitive emissions screening and monitoring results.

The new methodology was approved by the Ministry of Environment, Geology and Natural Resources of the Republic of Qazaqstan for using during the GHG emissions inventory at the Karachaganak field production facilities.

• The new methodology will enable KPO to obtain a more reliable data on the fugitive GHG (methane) emissions in Karachaganak;
• The methodology was applied during the GHG emissions inventory in 2020. According to the 2020 Inventory Report, application of this methodology allowed for reducing cumulative reportable KPO GHG emissions at least by 150 kt CO₂ equivalent or by 8%.

In 2021 KPO continued its activities on implementation of the ‘green office’ principles. The implementation of the ‘green’ principles contributes to maintaining and improving environmental culture, raising awareness of employees of the importance of the environmental issues and conscious care for the environment.

Also, the ‘green’ office concept motivates employees for participation in volunteer projects and development of eco-friendly behavior.

The targets of the ‘Green office 2021’ programme are as follows:

— reducing the ecological footprint of the Company’s offices,

— promotion of environment related ideas, and

— increasing loyalty of employees to the implementation of ‘green’ technologies and practices.

In 2021 the target group for the implementation of the pilot project ‘KPO Green office’ included Uralsk Kurmangazy office and Karachaganak Business Center in Aksai. In these offices separate collection of plastic waste was put into practice with following transfer for recycling.

The project was launched by conduction of training and building a team of eco-volunteers. Over 200 KPO employees attended the eco-training in 2021 which included:

• Training modules of the ‘green’ office programme for eco-volunteers who, in their turn, shared the obtained knowledge with their colleagues.
• Eco-breaks for discussion of important issues on reduction of the ecological footprint in the offices and contribution of each employee in the creation of eco-friendly office.
• Environmental seminars on ‘Management of material losses through waste management, or the most profitable eco-friendly habits’ with motivation speaker, environmental and healthy lifestyle coach. As a result of the seminar, many of the employees expressed their wish to become eco-volunteers in their departments.

The following indicators were selected for monitoring environmental performance of the offices:

• Electricity consumption (kW);
• Cold water consumption (m³);
• Quantity of plastic waste generated (kg);
• Quantity of waste paper (kg);
• Quantity of used plastic tableware (pcs);

In December 2021 KPO Company won the II Republican Contest ‘Green office — 2021’ in the nomination for industrial companies.

The ‘Green office — 2021’ Contest was held upon an initiative of the Coalition for ‘green’ Economy and G-Global development with the support of the Ministry of Environment, Geology and Natural Resources of the Republic of Qazaqstan and the OSCE Program office. The aims of the contest are promotion of eco-friendly life style, «green» and low-carbon technologies, improvement of environmental behavior in life, extension of best practices and technology solutions, as well as assistance in arrangement of comfortable labour conditions for promotion of respectful attitude to the environment. Over 100 organizations participated in this contest.

In 2022 activities on the implementation of the ‘green’ office principles will be continued in other KPO offices.

Above all, the ‘Green office’ project is necessary for reduction of negative impact on the environment from activities of people and organizations, but is not only a popular social trend.

As provided by the RoQ Environmental Law, effective since 2021, food waste is prohibited from burying at Landfills. Earlier, KPO incinerated food waste in General Purposes Incinerator (GPI) as part of the SDW, which has been ineffective method of waste management. During 2020-2021, the Company was searching for a waste treatment enterprise.

Introduce the most effective way of handling food waste generated at the catering facilities of the Karachaganak field in order to comply with the requirements of RoQ EcoCode.

In 2020, a scope of work was compiled, the requirements for treating food waste identified, and a tender conducted. An important requirement to an enterprise in terms of a treatment method was biocomposting of food waste and obtaining a useful product — biocompost to be used in agriculture and forestry as organic fertilizer, which is used to remediate, preserve and improve soil fertility.

In 2021, KPO signed a contract with a food waste treatment enterprise. Over the June-December, 2021 period, the Company handed over 129 tonnes of food waste from its catering facilities for processing. The updates on the delivery of this contract will be presented in future Reports.

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.

• 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.

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.

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.