Kazakhstani oil and gas industry to employ its workers abroad

According to Almas Kudaibergen, the chairman of the Association of Oil Service Companies of Kazakhstan, more than 80,000 skilled professionals are going to lose their jobs because of layoffs at the Tengiz oil field in 2022-2024.

«Losing people is not what we’d like to do. We are talking about 200,000 people – oil industry workers and their families. Our solution is to search for new projects. We thought of Russia first, since a lot of Kazakhstani enterprises are present there, but unfortunately, the war has put a lot of projects on pause. Another direction is the oil and gas market of the Middle East. Qatar and Saudi Arabia are the most promising countries in the region. For instance, the Qatari North Field project is expected to obtain more than $50 billion in investments within the next six years, whereas the Jafurah project in Saudi Arabia will receive more than $100 billion,» Kudaibergen said.

The chairman of the association advises Kazakhstani citizens to seek employment through the international oil service companies already operating in Kazakhstan. There are 25 international contractors representing the global top 200 companies in the country, according to Kudaibergen. The association estimates that these companies have earned more than $50 billion in profit over the last 30 years of work in Kazakhstan.

«I believe these companies have some kind of moral obligation. They should invite specialists from Kazakhstan to their international projects. Our association organized several trips to the headquarters of the general contractors and reached several arrangements with foreign companies to ensure that Kazakhstani subcontractors and workers will be invited to work there,» Kudaibergen stated.

He also pointed out that agreements like these are also made during meeting with representatives of the Ministry of Energy.  

«We have decided to proceed with Qatar. We have established the Qatar-Kazakh Chamber for Commerce and Industry, for example. Why Qatar? Because Qatar possesses the third largest reserve of natural gas in the world after Russia and Iran. As you know, both Russia and Iran are struggling with their gas exports, which is why Qatar is aggressively investing in the development of oil and gas fields, aiming to take advantage of the current situation. As I mentioned earlier, we established the Qatar-Kazakh Chamber for Commerce and Industry to enhance relations between the two countries. Last year, we even held the first ever large business forum in Doha that gathered more than 150 business representatives from both countries,» Kudaibergen highlighted.

He believes that employing specialists abroad may be of great benefit to Kazakhstan since a thousand oil service workers with an average annual salary of $200,000 may bring about $250 million to the country per year.  

«More than a thousand Kazakhstanis are already working for leading local and international enterprises in Qatar, earning over $5,000 a month. For instance, there is a big international oil and gas company called Total Qatar, whose head is a citizen of Kazakhstan. He has already been working there for 17 years, and he is in charge of all the operations carried out by Total in Qatar. Our fellow citizens are also employed in key technical positions in Qatar Gas and QatarEnergy. However, the government must engage in the process more actively,» Kudaibergen underlined.

Earlier this year, Samruk-Kazyna reported that 17 Kazakhstani welders were invited to work in Europe. Many of them previously worked for various oil and gas companies and the Future Growth Project at Tengiz.