Legislation
BackSubsurface Users Forum Expects Guests
Interviewer: D. Slinko
Quite shortly on April 29, 2011 Almaty will host the Third Annual Forum of Subsurface Users of the Republic of Kazakhstan. GRATA Law Firm has been the mastermind and the organizer of this major business and social event over the last three years. In an interview to our magazine our guest Mr. Almat Daumov, Director, GRATA Law Firm Office in Almaty, will dwell upon the forthcoming Forum and many related issues.
- Very odd word combination : a law firm – and subsurface users… Why did GRATA, one of the largest law firms in the country, take the lead in calling a Forum of subsurface users?
- First of all we wanted to help our customers. The vast majority of our customers do business in the sector of natural resources production, processing or transportation. GRATA is one of the leading law firms in Central Asia and in the Caspian region represented by over 90 lawyers and a network of branch offices both in Kazakhstan (Almaty, Astana, Atyrau, Aktau, Aktobe, Aksai, Karaganda) and in Uzbekistan (Tashkent), Azerbaijan (Baku), Kyrgyzstan (Bishkek), Tajikistan (Dushanbe), Turkmenistan (Ashgabat) and Georgia and resident offices in the UK (London) and the USA (New York). Therefore in 2009 an idea struck us: to organize a forum for subsurface users both from the oil & gas and mining sectors to discuss the key legislation and law enforcement practice related issues specific to these sectors.
Many conferences and forums of this kind are being organized nowadays including such important conferences as KIOGE and others. However each of them pursues its own goals and objectives. KIOGE may be associated with “an haute couture week” – big boys and big investors focus on globally important issues and the conference itself is designed to address the urgent key problems, to articulate the global trends, to voice new investment interests and to provide a platform for signing major contracts , etc.
There are forums that can be conditionally described as “technical” including “OilTech Atyrau” that focus on specific technical and technological problems. For example, new approaches to oil production or application of new oil and gas production and transportation technologies, etc.
However there is no a single forum that would provide for a broad and comprehensive review of the legislation and law enforcement practice related issues. We do not mean legal issues only. The subject matter may cover a wide range of issues including related to tax legislation, environment protection, etc. We decided to materialize our idea and to call a Forum of subsurface users of Kazakhstan.
In 2009 it took us virtually two weeks to organize it. We were surprised to witness the profound interest and response evoked by this event in subsurface users, businessmen, lawyers and civil servants. The first forum brought together over 70 delegates though we did not have any experience in organizing such conferences. After all, we a law firm rather than a specialized firm for organizing major business and social events. But we did it! Thanks to the support and enthusiastic response from our customers and businessmen. We invited many speakers from various public authorities and they took an active part in the forum.
Therefore our Forum was as practical as practicable. It focused on the most urgent and outstanding issues of interest to all participants in the forum. It was a spontaneous, open and transparent exchange of views between various actors in our raw materials market on the developments and problems that have direct impact on its development and prosperity. Direct, spontaneous and lively exchange of views and opinions between subsurface users and representatives of public authorities helped expedite finding solutions to many problems arising from law enforcement practice. .
- So the proverb “you must spoil before you spin” did not come true… And you decided to carry on?