(SRI) - KazMunaiGas Exploration Production (KMG EP) expects its 2011 crude oil production to fall 4% lower than previously planned 13.5 million tonnes as a strike at a major field enters a second month, the company said on Tuesday.
KMG EP, the London-traded subsidiary of the national oil and gas company KazMunaiGas, said the strike at Uzenmunaigas, its core facility developing the Uzen field in western Kazakhstan, had resulted in output losses of 150,000 tonnes since it began on May 26.
"The company now believes that annual production from the Uzen field will not reach the target level and will be lower by at least 600,000 tonnes," KMG EP said in a statement but said that the estimate my change "depending on how long the protest action will last and how quickly stable production at Uzenmunaigas is restored."
KMG EP said the number of strikers at Uzenmunaigas had fallen to 650 from a peak of 2,500 and reiterated that the company was ready to consider starting negotiations on the labor dispute after the "complete cessation of illegal protests."
The Uzenmunaigas strike is the second major strike at KMG EP's facilities in the past two months. In May, KMG said that protests, disrupted operations at Karazhanbasmunai, a Kazakh-Chinese joint venture between CITIC, China's biggest state-owned investment company, and KMG EP.
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