PETROLEUM. Analytical journal. New projects, fields’ development, production, processing and transportation of oil and gas, presentation of the companies, statistics on the production of hydrocarbons, monitoring of investment legislation.

Oil Generals

Tireless Worker

In the state, as a rule, there are industries that occupy a dominant position in its development.

In the Western regions of our country since the beginning of the twentieth century significant reserves of hydrocarbons have been discovered. Accelerated development of oil and gas fields, especially during the years of independence of Kazakhstan, allowed to turn the oil and gas industry into a locomotive of the country's economy.

Discovery and development of a huge oil fields were very useful for attracting foreign investment from the first years of independence, which had a significant positive impact on the accelerated development of the state economy in general, and the oil and gas industry in particular.

Each generation contributes to the formation of our country, among which the commanders of production stand out, leading the team to achieve new heights in the work. The younger generation should know about the life of these wonderful people. This category of fellow countrymen includes veteran-oilman, laureate of the state prize of Kazakhstan, Sagingaliyev B.S., who devoted all his conscious life to the development of the oil and gas industry.

Bulekbay Sagingalievich Sagingaliyev was born in 1927 in the Dossor village of Makat district in Guryev (now Atyrau) region. In 1951, he graduated from the Moscow Oil Institute named after academician I. M. Gubkin, with a degree of Mining Engineer.

He began his career in 1944, as auditor-controller of Workers' Supply Department at Kaznefterazvedka complex of enterprises. After graduation, he works as an Assistant Master, Master in oil production, Head of the gas field, Chief Engineer of the oilfield management Koshkar, Dossor, Makat and Karaton, Head of the Department of the  Kazakhstanneft Association. In 1960, he was appointed Head of the Department of oil and gas industry of the Council of National Economy of the Kazakh SSR. From 1963 to 1969, he was Deputy Head of the Department of Heavy Industry of the Central Committee of the Communist party of Kazakhstan.

In 1969, Bulekbay Sagingalievich became Deputy Head of the Kazakhstanneft Association, and in 1971, he is appointed the General Director of Embaneft Association. He stays in this position for 15 years.

Our closer fellowship continued when in the summer of 1970, I was elected the first Secretary of Guryev Regional Committee of Komsomol, and Sagingaliyev B.S. worked in the Kazakhstanneft Association, the central office of which was located in the city of Guryev.

Earlier I heard about him from the newspapers, and also repeatedly met him at the plant where I worked, but more closely as about the fellow countryman I have heard from my parents who lived in the Dossor village, as the ancestors of Bulekbay Sagingalievich, and communicated with each other.

Since the beginning of industrial development of the Dossor field (1911), my father Tazhigara Aldongorovich and his four brothers began their careers in the company of Nobel Brothers, where he worked with the father of Bulekbay Sagingalievich – Sagingali.

I remember back at the end of high school my parents told me that the son of Sagingali – Bulekbay studied at the Moscow Oil Institute, and now works as a big boss, that is who I should take for a model.

Sagingaliyev B.S. have actively pursued the development of the Emba oil industries after accession to the position of General Director of Embaneft Association. Apparently, the analysis of the state of the oil Emba, conducted by Bulekbay Sagingalievich, was not in favor of attracting large funds for its revival, i.e. it was considered unpromising.

The discovered post-salt oil fields have exhausted their capabilities and there was a process of annual reduction of oil production, and there were no strong arguments for the exploration of new fields by the Union ministries. Priority for the direction of material and financial resources were Western Siberia and Mangyshlak region, where, according to the decision of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the government of the USSR, a large fuel and energy complex was being created.

There was one way out of this situation – to convince the higher economic, Soviet Party bodies of the need to invest in geological exploration of deep sub-salt structures. The discovery of large oil deposits would make it possible to dramatically improve the socio-economic development of the region.

Studies of highly promising sub-salt deposits in the southern Emba region have been developed since the early 70s on the initiative of Embaneft.

In 1971, in Atyrau at the meeting of the leading oil geologists of the Soviet Union the future of the Emba region was discussed. Proposals have been made regarding the resources located at a depth of 4-5 thous. meters under the salt deposits, whereas the earliest work on the drilling and production was carried out from a surface crust.

In August of 1971, the Minister of Oil Industry of the USSR, V. D. Shashin, signed an order "On measures to strengthen geological exploration and development of oil and gas industry in the Western regions of Kazakhstan". Insufficient geological knowledge, the lack of a fund of prepared structures and extremely complex mining and geological conditions required the involvement of significant scientific and industrial forces, as well as improvemnt of the technical level of work.

Overall, over 20 research, development and production organizations of the USSR participated in geological study, dealing with complex technological, technical and organizational tasks during the period of prospecting, exploration and evaluation, including such as the Institute of Geology of the National Academy of Science of RK, Institute of IGIRGI, KNIGRZ, Saratovneftegeofizika, Embaneftegeofizika geophysical trusts, etc. In the Caspian Depression, in its Eastern part, the search for post-salt oil was replaced by the study of subsalt deposits.

Systematic and directed geological and geophysical studies have brought a lot of completely new and very valuable data on the structure of the Pre-Kungurian sediments of the Caspian basin. These numerous geological and geophysical data allowed to make new gravimetric, magnetic schemes, and also a number of structural schemes of the base and a surface of a sub-salt complex of a basin.

Detailed seismic work to prepare sub-salt structures for exploration drilling was carried out mainly in the South, in the coastal zone. This was due to the fact that the sub-salt deposits here lie at more accessible depths for drilling (4000-5000 m). As a result of these works, 12 promising structures were prepared, among which was the Tengiz upheaval (1975).