Presentation
The Black Blood of Kazakhstan: no Politics, Just the Facts
According to the materials of informburo.kz, Radio Azattyk websites.
The journalist and editor-in-chief of the Petroleum Journal Oleg Chervinskiy presented his book The Black Blood of Kazakhstan: Oil History of Independence on October 4th in Almaty during the KIOGE-2017 exhibition.
The book is based on a series of The Black Gold of Independence articles that were published on Ratel.kz website from October 2016 to March 2017. Some articles have gained tens of thousands of views, such as: How the Prime Minister Kazhegeldin Sold A Homeland, How Sarybai Kalmurzayev Searched For 500 Million Of Petrodollars or Why Kairat Kelimbetov Flew To Singapore.
The book was published in September by the Private Cultural and Educational Fund of Dosym Satpayev within the Soz literary project. The Editor is journalist Vadim Boreyko. Circulation: 1200 copies. The book went on sale in all stores of Meloman and MARWIN retail chains in the country.
As Vadim Boreyko says: “it's not just a chronology of Kazakhstan oil industry during 25 years of independence, and certainly not an official report on its achievements, but a real an honest detective, with victories and failures, heroes and villains, Government and self-serving interests.And, of course, throughout this story enormous money were at stake.Personally, I binge read the book, and not even as an editor, but as an ordinary reader”.
Attendants of the presentation were interested why in the name of the book there is such phrase as the “Black blood”. As said by Oleg Chervinskiy, he and the Publisher Dosym Satpayev wanted to show that oil is the “blood” of Kazakhstan's economy, and the adjective "black" added because of the natural color of oil.
The author is positive he didn't make any political conclusions, but simply reflected the facts. For that reason the book does not contain false information.
Since the early days of his career in the media Oleg Chervinskiy is closely linked to the oil and gas industry, in the 90's he wrote for the Russian Petroleum Investor magazine, then founded the first Kazakhstani oil and gas magazine. The author tried to objectively provide a chronology of the development of the industry and explain what key events took place from year to year, what motivations have moved people who made strategic decisions.
Not every book becomes a platform for debate, but this time it started even before the book became available to a wide range of readers. Probably because it was published in a difficult moment when the rich with resources Kazakhstan once again somehow faced a shortage of fuel. The answers to many questions can be found on its pages.
Chervinskiy admits that during the interviews many of his interlocutors expressed regret that they did not use all the chances to make the oil industry a powerful driver for the development of Kazakhstan. Not everything in the 90’s went as it was planned. There were many ambitious programs, and while there were successes, also there were large failures.
"The problem is that we have not been able to create a powerful human capital assets, - book Publisher, political analyst Dosym Satpayev added. - Now Elon Musk discusses creation of orbital stations on Mars, while our Government is still discussing the price of oil and petrol shortages.The feeling is that we are stuck in a "Groundhog Day".
Author of the book with the publisher Dosym SatpayevDosym Satpayev says: "Surprisingly, a lot of people attended to listen to the author and get his autograph.Of course, there were many representatives of the oil and gas sector.Interest in the book was great.As one if the oil industry veterans said, they would hardly be able to write such a book themselves. The topic is too delicate. Although only readers can judge the final product written by Oleg. At least, today's presentation had already divided the participants into pessimists and optimists about the past and future of Kazakhstan's oil industry.
“We ourselves would not dare to write such a book, - commented, addressing to the author, former President of Kazakhgas Kunduz Nupov, one of the first who read the book. - It is difficult to write about the truth. Great that you collected all this information then, because to do so today would be impossible. Bold, complex things are objectively described in this book. The title, of course, not entirely successful.Hopefully, in the next part it will already be the "blue blood," he jokes.
As a reminder, The Black Blood of Kazakhstan: Oil History of Independence is sold in all of Meloman and MARWIN stores in Almaty, Astana, Aktobe, Uralsk, Shymkent, Atyrau and Aktau. The book also can be delivered to any city in the country when purchased in the online store Meloman (www.meloman.kz) and in the office of the Petroleum Journal.
Autograph signing after the presentation