Protests against the detention and forced removal of about 130 Kazakh oil industry workers from the capital, Astana, interrupted operations at a regional subsidiary of KazMunayGaz, a state-controlled oil and gas holding company.

Operations were disrupted at regional oil subsidiary Ozenmunaygaz in the Mangistau region, the holding company said on Wednesday.

The workers were detained after staging their own protest outside the head office of KazMunayGaz in Astana earlier this week. They said they were representing hundreds of oilfield service workers from Zhanaozen who have to periodically terminate and renew their employment each time Ozenmunaygaz tenders for contracts.

Precarious employment

In their social media posts, the workers complained that dismissed workers are forced to sign new terms with each new contractor, losing benefits such as the right to claim regular paid leave.

Riot police packed the protesters into buses by force on Tuesday evening after they had refused to disperse after a meeting with KazMunayGaz’ executives.

The detention sparked spontaneous street protests in the workers’ home city of Zhanaozen in the Mangistau region, about 1700 kilometres away from Astana.

Regional media reported protests in other cities, including Aktau and Uralsk, to demand the release of oil workers detained in Astana.

Zhanaozen police also said they detained 24 protesters in the city late on Tuesday, while Azattyq radio station reported sudden arrests of two opposition activists, one in Almaty and another in Uralsk.

Speaking on Tuesday, Kazakhstan’s recently appointed energy minister, Almasadam Satkaliyev, refused to meet with protesters or negotiate a solution. If they want to “spend their night in the street, this is their decision”, he said.

Out of Astana

Kazakh deputy prosecutor general Zhandos Umiraliyev told reporters in Astana on Wednesday morning that 126 protesters were taken from the entrance to KazMunayGaz head office to district police departments on Tuesday evening, but freed several hours later.

However, KazMunayGaz said in a statement on Wednesday that all protesters are now on route to Zhanaozen, with the company “forming a contact group” to liaise between oil workers and their employers and “deal with their demands using legal means”.

Azattyq, which is an independent broadcaster covering former Soviet Union republics in Central Asia, said that detained oil workers were escorted to a train station in Astana and put into three additional carriages attached to a regular train departing for Zhanaozen on Wednesday morning.

According to KazMunayGaz, workers leaving their places to join the street protest in Zhanaozen led to interruptions in operations at Ozenmunaygaz and two of other local subsidiaries on Tuesday evening.

The company has not confirmed reports that some of oilfield service workers in Zhanaozen went on strike on Wednesday morning.

Deadly protests

Astana authorities fear a new wave of protests after the events of January 2022 when Kazakhstan was rocked by massive street protests across the country.

The protests only ended after hundreds of activists were killed, according to opposition leaders.

In response to demands for his resignation, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev reached an agreement with Russia and Belarus for the deployment of military aid to patrol the country’s major cities.

The protests were triggered by rising domestic fuel prices, but also reflected anger against the continuing economic power of the family of former ex-President Nursultan Nazarbayev.

Tokayev announced measures to reduce the involvement of Nazarbayev’s family members and relatives in the country’s major businesses last year but opposition leader Mukhtar Ablyazov said in a social media interview this week that changes had been largely cosmetic.