Oil Chronicles
Oil Chronicles. December 2024
The Condensate Refinery, located in the West Kazakhstan region, has received a quota from the Ministry of Energy to export 800 tons of RON 92 gasoline and 7,257 tons of RON 95 gasoline in December, following the absence of such a permit in October-November.
At that time, the ministry banned exports because it feared maintenance work at the Atyrau Refinery would lead to fuel shortages in the domestic market.
The refinery has completed maintenance, and in December, total motor fuel supplies to the domestic market from all three refineries will increase by 2% daily compared to November.
Nurpeis Sarsenbay has been appointed as the new General Director – Chairman of the Management Board of Karazhanbasmunai JSC.
He graduated from the Aktau Polytechnic Institute with a degree in Oil and Gas Field Development and Mining Engineering and from the International Academy of Business with a degree in Management. He holds an MBA. His career began in 1994 as an oil and gas production operator at the Kalamkas field, where he steadily progressed through all career levels. Most recently, he served as the Deputy General Director of Mangistaumunaygas JSC.
Personnel changes continued with a planned rotation at another Kazakh-Chinese upstream enterprise – Mangistaumunaygas.
KazMunayGas representative Murat Mustafayev has been replaced as General Director by Wen Jiajun.
He graduated from Gubkin Russian State University of Oil and Gas. In Kazakhstan, he worked at CNPC-Ai Dan Munai JSC, where he became company president. From May to December 2024, he served as the First Deputy General Director of Mangistaumunaygas.
A final ruling has been issued in the arbitration dispute between Romania’s National Agency for Mineral Resources (NAMR) and Oilfield Exploration Business Solutions S.A. (OEBS), a subsidiary of KMG International, over the Focsani field in eastern Romania.
NAMR accused the Kazakhstani company of violating the concession agreement for the field. The Paris arbitration tribunal ruled in NAMR’s favor, ordering OEBS to pay $10.1 mln out of the total $20 mln claim.
Former First Deputy General Director of Ozenmunaigas Nurzhan Abdirakhmanov has been appointed Managing Director of Dunga Operating GmbH.
He graduated from the University of Tulsa in Oklahoma, USA, and completed an MBA program at the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration from 2014 to 2015. His career began in 2002 at Karazhanbasmunai, where he held various positions, including Vice President for Production. Under his leadership, a project was implemented to revive idle wells at the Karazhanbas field. At Ozenmunaigas, he managed the rehabilitation of the Uzen and Karamanlybas fields.
KazMunayGas holds a 60% stake in the Dunga project, operated by Dunga Operating GmbH.
The EPC contractor for the polyethylene plant construction project in the Atyrau region, the Spanish firm Tecnicas Reunidas, has signed a memorandum of cooperation with the project operator, Silleno LLP.
Under the memorandum, Tecnicas Reunidas has committed to:
▪️ Establish an office in Kazakhstan as the primary regional hub for the entire CIS;
▪️ Develop local expertise by hiring Kazakhstani specialists. The immediate goal is to achieve 95% Kazakhstani personnel involvement in construction work;
▪️ Develop and implement a comprehensive training program for local specialists;
▪️ Assess the potential for creating a full-fledged engineering center in Kazakhstan, considering the integration of local expertise in petrochemical plant design.
Mazhilis deputy Adil Zhubanov has called for an end to reimbursing the Kashagan consortium’s social investments with extracted oil.
He stated: “The government considers the $55 mln allocated by NCOC for social projects to be a charitable contribution, but this is not true sponsorship in its real sense. These funds are reimbursed to the company by Kazakhstan in oil, meaning that the money allocated for social and infrastructure projects ultimately returns to the consortium. Over the next five years, NCOC shareholders plan to earn around $60 bln while allocating just $55 mln for social projects in the Atyrau and Mangystau regions—funds that will also be reimbursed to them in oil.”
In his view, the project’s shareholders should return these funds to Kazakhstan.
A joint venture between the Kazakhstani engineering company Karaganda Promstroiproekt Institute LLP and the French company Technip Energies will provide engineering and technical consulting services for the construction of a gas processing plant for processing 2.5 bln cubic meters of Kashagan gas per year.
The joint venture, registered in 2019 under the name TKJV LLP, has secured a contract from Qatar’s UCC Holding for ongoing engineering support of the holding’s major capital projects in Kazakhstan.
Ayan Baimakanov has been appointed as the new managing director of geology at the national company QazaqGaz.
He will oversee geological exploration projects and manage the company’s field portfolio in this role.
Ayan Tulenovich graduated with honours from Satbayev Kazakh National Technical University with a degree in petroleum geology. He holds a master’s degree in oil business and has undergone professional development training at Exxon in the United States.
Previously, he held senior positions at major international and Kazakhstani companies, including KazMunayGas and ConocoPhillips (USA), and headed Statoil’s operations in Kazakhstan. His total experience in geological exploration exceeds 20 years.