Kazakhstan’s oil men go on strike, reports say
By Aynur Karimova
Kazakhstan’s oilmen working at the offshore Kalamkas-Sea field in the Mangistau region have gone on strike, an anonymous source at the country’s national oil and gas company KazMunaiGas told Trend Agency on January 8.
“Oil workers are on strike there. The management of the national company have gone to the scene to hear the reasons of the strikers,” the source said.
However, KazMunaiGas has denied the claim saying “there is no strike.”
“The leadership of the national company KazMunaiGas, jointly with the Akimat (mayor’s office) of the Mangistau region, is negotiating with the workers of service companies that are in charge of the oil and gas projects in the region,” Abzal Nurkasymov, Head of the Media Relations Department of KazMunaiGas, told Trend.
He explained that the strike is not going on in Kazakhstan’s Kalamkas-Sea field, as it was reported, but at the company’s subsidiary – AktauOilService LLP – whose workers back in late 2014, put forward a number of conditions for working.
“Now the parties are engaged in negotiation. The company is considering the conditions put forward by the workers,” Nurkasymov added.
This is not the first strike of oil workers in Kazakhstan. Other mass riots occured in the country’s oil city of Zhanaozen and the neighboring Shetpe village in December 2011, leaving at least 14 people dead and over 80 injured.
The riots were triggered by the improper activities of the KazMunaiGas management, which did not want to make contact with the striking oil workers.
Kalamkas-Sea field, located in 150 kilometers North-West from the Buzachi peninsula, was discovered on September 3, 2002. The geological reserve of the field is estimated at least 160 million metric tons of oil, while more optimistic forecasts say that this figure nears 1 billion metric tons.
The field is developed by the consortium of the oil companies involved in the North Caspian project.
Aynur Karimova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on
Twitter: @Aynur_Karimova
Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz