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BackUzakbai Karabalin: ''We Believe in the Long-term Demand for Oil and Gas''
On January 19th, 2016 Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan signed a decree for the release of the First Vice-Minister of Energy Uzakbai Karabalin from his position due to attainment of the age of retirement.
He has held this position since August 13th, 2014. Over the years he served as a Minister of oil and gas of Kazakhstan, President of JSC “National Company “KazMunayGas”, President of JSC “KazTransGas”, Director General of Kazakh Institute of Oil & Gas.
Under his supervision were developed: The State program of development of the Kazakhstan’s sector of the Caspian Sea for 2003-2015, the program for the development of gas industry of the Republic of Kazakhstan for 2004-2010, the program for the development of the petrochemical industry for 2004-2010, the general plan for the development of coastal infrastructure of the Kazakhstan’s sector of the Caspian Sea. These policy documents have become fundamental for the further development of the oil and gas industry of the country.
In the current situation, we would like to draw attention to several aspects of the development of the industry. Firstly, the range of use of oil is far from its limits. Yes, currently vast majority is accounted for by transportation, but full potential of petrochemical industry is yet to be disclosed. Those precursor of the industrial revolution, such as the development of 3D-printing and other innovative technologies, to a large extent are based on the use of plastic and its components.
Secondly, you cannot compare the technological level of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Today the sphere of up-stream is a combination of the most in-depth, fundamental and applied scientific research. Testing sites are being created at the level of the leading military laboratories, technological complexity of deep hole drilling is comparable to flying in space, technical innovations are comparable with work in the vacuum, and so on. This is associated with a significant decrease of possibility of major new discoveries in the field of easily extracted oil and transition to a new stage of development in the form of close integration with the most advanced industries and science.