KIOGE 2018 is a new impetus for development of Kazakhstan oil and gas industry

On September 26 and 27, 2018, the 26th Kazakhstan International Oil and Gas Conference KIOGE 2018 was completed in Almaty. 410 professionals from 197 leading international and domestic companies, such as Dow, ABB, Mckinsey & Company, SAP , Lukoil and many others met at the site.

The largest event of the industry in Central Asia - KIOGE conference is an important part of International Exhibition "Oil and Gas". Complementing each other, two events are held at a high organizational and professional level. The conference and exhibition should be viewed as an effective mechanism for interaction of state, specialized associations and departments with representatives of oil and gas companies to discuss challenges and problems of oil and gas industry.

Leading Kazakhstan and world experts of the industry took part in KIOGE 2018 conference: Makhambet Dosmukhambetov, First Vice-Minister of Energy of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Julian Robert Tudorake, Vice-Minister of Energy of Romania, Kurmangazy Iskaziev, Deputy Chairman of Development, Production and Oilfields services Board of NC KazMunayGas JSC, Arman Satimov, adviser to the chairman of Kazenergy Association, Rzabek Artygaliev, general manager for relations with the government and the public Tengizchevroil, Zhakyp Marabayev, deputy managing director of NCOC, Rashid Zhaksylykov, chairman of presidium "KazService" and others.

Central theme of the conference was drivers of oil industry growth, within the frameworks of which issues of digitalization, changes in legislation, investment environment, oilfield services and transportation were revealed.

Experts of oil and gas industry paid special attention to the new legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan. According to Makhambet Dosmukhambetov, the first vice-minister of the RK, in the sphere of subsoil use, activation of investors' activity has already being observed. This was achieved through effective natural resourses and subsoil use code, which aims to simplify presentation of rights to subsoil users and attract investment inflows for exploration of new oil and gas field, as well as new tax code of the Republic of Kazakhstan, which includes optimization of tax burden.

Another topical theme of the conference was investment attractiveness of Kazakhstan oil industry. Vice Minister of Energy of the European country, Julian Robert Tudorake expressed interest in investing to Kazakhstan. "Romania has concluded many significant oil and gas contracts with Kazakhstan. Our country is the only major producer of hydrocarbons in Europe, and we intend to help Kazakhstan open the markets of Balkans and Europe. We want our producers to be in your country", said Julian Robert Tudorake, while about 80% of oil imported to Romania falls on Kazakhstan and Russia.

Such investment sentiment, according to experts, will bring additional revenue to the state budget. "Kazakhstan together with participants of oil and gas market will be able to obtain a total income of 1.3 to 2 trillion US dollars with favorable investment and price factors. This creates an opportunity for new participants, as well as those who are already working in Kazakhstan, to find new points for the growth of long-term development in the territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan", said Arman Satimov, advisor to the chairman of Kazenergy Association.

Discussing the topic of digitalization, national company KazMunayGas during the sessions announced that it is actively and successfully implementing projects of intellectual deposit on its mining assets. "Implementation of the project "Intellectual field" will create a full-scale automated system for gathering data from the field, optimize the work of wells and field equipment through the use of intelligent control stations", said Kurmangazy Iskaziev, Deputy Chairman of the Board for Development, Production and Oil Services of NC KazMunayGas JSC. National company KazMunayGas selected 18 deposits for digitalization, on which about 90% of all raw materials are concentrated. It is planned to allocate 28 billion tenge for their modernization. This amount includes: creation of a center for analytics, improvement of the field, from control sensors to oil preparation. Implementation of the program "Intellectual deposit" on these deposits is planned to be completed before 2023.

Kazakhstan is actively working to open fuel exports to Central Asia. This will be possible due to modernization of country's refineries. According to Makhambet Dosmukhambetov, the first vice-minister of energy of the Republic of Kazakhstan in the field of oil refining has successfully completed modernization projects of Atyrau refinery and Pavlodar plant, and by the end of the year it is planned to complete reconstruction of Shymkent plant. The volume of oil refining at the same time at all refineries will be increases by 300 thousand tons per year. In the near future, domestic market will be fully provided with domestic petroleum products. And release of products of ecological class K4 K5 will allow Kazakhstan to produce fuel for export.

It is to be recalled that, important event of this year was signing of a Memorandum of Cooperation between ALE “Kazakhstan Association of Organizations of Oil and Gas and Energy complex “KAZENERGY” and Kazakhstan exhibition company “TECA”. As part of this document, starting from 2018, KIOGE will be held for even-numbered years, and KAZENERGY Forum for odd-numbered years. The next KIOGE exhibition will be held in October 2020.

KIOGE traditionally takes place with official support of the Ministry of Energy of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Almaty City Akimat, ALE “Kazakhstan Association of Organizations of Oil and Gas and Energy complex “KAZENERGY”, National Company KazMunayGas JSC, Union of Service Companies of Kazakhstan KazService, Kazakhstan Society of Oilers-Geologists (CONG) and diplomatic missions of participating countries.

Golden partners of KIOGE 2018 are Tengizchevroil LLP, North Caspian Operating Company NV, Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC-K) JSC, Dow Chemical. Silver partners are Embamunaygas, Control Seal, Complect Armatura LLP and Russian Export Center JSC. Bronze partners are Baker Hughes a GE company, Fluor Kazakhstan Inc., Wabag, ILF and machinery and engineering holding HMS Group. The General Information Partner of KIOGE 2018 was Khabar Agency.

Organizers of KIOGE 2018 are Kazakhstan exhibition company Iteca and its international partner ITE Group Plc (Great Britain).