Oil Chronicles
Oil Chronicles. August 2024
August
August 1, Ali Al-Janabi was appointed Senior Vice President and Shell Kazakhstan Country Chair.
Before this appointment, Ali was the Chairman of Shell in Iraq, Tunisia, and the UAE. He represented Shell Group to the governments of Iraq and the UAE. He was accountable for the performance of Shell’s Upstream Joint Ventures in Iraq, Italy, Kuwait, Tunisia, and the UAE.
His experience covers the different phases of the project life cycle, including M&A, project engineering & construction, asset management, financing, and trading. His work experience spans the water, energy, and banking sectors.
Ali started his career with Taylor Woodrow and worked for Halliburton and Goldman Sachs. He graduated from Imperial College London, obtaining a Master of Engineering degree in Civil & Environmental Engineering in 1996. In 2000, he earned a Master’s degree in strategic financial management. Ali also holds a Financial Services Authority qualification in Financial Regulation & Derivatives.
August 1, Karachaganak Petroleum Operating B.V. (KPO) is pleased to announce that the KEP-1A Project safely achieved First Gas Reinjection. This significant milestone was reached with the successful operation of the 5th compressor at full discharge pressure, enabling gas from the Karachaganak Processing Complex (KPC) to be reinjected into the reservoir through the new KEP-1A gas reinjection system for the first time. This milestone, the most critical in the KEP-1A Project, was safely completed one month ahead of schedule, liquidating over 22 million man-hours.
August 1, the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders of Maten Petroleum JSC decided not to distribute dividends for 2023 to the Chinese shareholder, despite a profit exceeding 38 bln tenge. The company extracts oil from the Maten, Kara-Arna, and East Kokarna fields in the Atyrau region of Kazakhstan. As of July 1, 2024, 98.48% of Maten Petroleum’s shares are owned by Sino-Science Netherlands Energy Group B.V.
Simultaneously, as the sole participant in KoZhAn LLP (operating the Morskoye and Karatal fields in the Atyrau region), Maten Petroleum decided not to distribute its subsidiary's 2023 profit of 24 bln tenge.
August 2, Askhat Khassenov, CEO of KazMunayGas, and Maixent Ominga, General Director of the national oil company of Congo, Societe Nationale des Petroles du Congo (SNPC), signed a cooperation agreement in the oil and gas sector.
"Both parties are interested in exploring new joint projects in subsurface use, oil refining, and petrochemicals, as well as exchanging knowledge and experience in geology, geophysics, and drilling technologies, including horizontal wells," KazMunayGas stated.
Congo is the third-largest player in Africa’s oil and gas sector, and SNPC collaborates with companies like Total Energies, Chevron, and Eni.
Chevron, a key shareholder in Kazakhstan’s Tengiz project, announced it will relocate its headquarters from California to Texas starting January 1, 2025.
Chevron’s leadership and managers have been based in San Ramon, California, since the company’s founding in 1879 as Pacific Coast Oil. The company will now be headquartered in Houston, Texas, the oil capital of the United States. Oil companies are leaving California due to rising taxes, stricter climate regulations, and a deteriorating investment climate. Last year, California filed lawsuits against Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell, BP, and ConocoPhillips, accusing them of downplaying the climate risks associated with fossil fuel use.
Berik Abdiev has been appointed the new Chairman of the Board of the Situation and Analytical Center for the Fuel and Energy Complex of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The previous head of the center, Adilkhan Kopabayev, who had led the organization since June 2023, announced his resignation on July 22, 2024.
Mr. Abdiev, a graduate of Satpayev KazNITU, has more than 20 years of experience in the oil and gas industry, including in the KazMunayGas group of companies. "He successfully led the implementation of several projects, including smart oil field initiatives and the integration of hydrocarbon metering systems," the center’s statement read.
The KazEnergy Association, together with the International Center of Excellence for Sustainable Resource Management in Central Asia, has begun work on amendments to the Tax Code and the Subsoil and Subsoil Use Code. These amendments will allow hydrocarbon extraction from small fields (with reserves of up to 300,000 tons) and unconventional hydrocarbons (shale oil/gas, coalbed methane, inert gases).
The amendments aim to simplify exploration and production procedures for such fields, increase investment attractiveness, and provide preferential terms for these projects. For natural bitumen and small fields (isolated deposits), the proposed changes include simplifying state expert review procedures, reducing state regulation, and offering benefits such as 100% export of extracted oil or tax holidays until the project reaches profitability.
The heads of KazMunayGas and US-based LanzaJet signed a memorandum of cooperation in Chicago. KazMunayGas CEO Askhat Khassenov visited the LanzaTech laboratory in Chicago during a working visit to the US. He noted that KazMunayGas has set ambitious goals to reduce its carbon footprint by 15% by 2031 compared to 2019 levels and that developing the biofuel market in Kazakhstan will help the country achieve carbon neutrality.

LanzaJet CEO Jimmy Samartzis expressed the company’s readiness to provide full technological support for this project.
LanzaJet is the technology developer for producing sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) from ethanol (alcohol-to-jet) and has long-term offtake agreements with major global airlines. In January 2024, the company launched the world’s first commercial-scale SAF production facility, LanzaJet Freedom Pines Fuels, using ethanol.