Thanks to the largest oil and gas projects, such as Tengiz and Kashagan, Kazakhstan has given birth to many strong specialists and contractors. In recent years, some domestic oilfield service companies have been opening up new sales markets at foreign projects and are quite successful in that.
For the purpose of studying global projects and searching for strategic partners, at the invitation and with the assistance of Mr. Luca Vignati, Executive Vice President at ENI, an oil and gas concern, the Association set up a Kazakhstan delegation to visit Italy from March 26 to 29 this year. The delegation comprised representatives of about 12 domestic companies and representatives of competent authority PSA.
The visit was timed to coincide with Offshore Mediterranean Conference-2019, the international oil and gas exhibition in Ravenna. This exhibition presented the stands of over 500 major European manufacturers of oil and gas equipment, contracting, engineering and oilfield service companies.
The Kazakhstan delegation had an opportunity to get acquainted with new technologies and hold meetings with the CEOs of European companies within the framework of the exhibition.
After the visit to the exhibition, an Italian-Kazakhstan business forum was held involving over 80 Italian companies that are interested in cooperation with Kazakhstan’s market. Mr. Abishev, representative of competent authority PSA, told at the panel session about the actions aimed at the development of the Kazakhstan content and called the Italian companies to set up joint ventures with Kazakhstan businesses.
Luca Vignati told about the growing potential of Kazakhstan’s oil market. In its turn, the Association presented information about the current oilfield service and oil and gas products market. The CEOs of SICIM, Bonatti, KCOI, KIOS told their stories of successful cooperation with Kazakhstan business in their presentations and highlighted the importance of setting up partner relationships with Kazakhstan business for successful development in Kazakhstan.
At the end of the forum, a cocktail party was arranged, where the participants discussed in detail the matters of interest and exchanged their contacts.
Following the exhibition in Ravenna, the Kazakhstan delegation visited on March 29 ENI’s headquarters in Milan at the invitation of Mr. Antonio Vella, Chief Upstream Officer at ENI. The delegation visited ENI’s scientific and laboratory centers that create and develop process solutions for ENI’s global projects. It should be noted that ENI specifically develops the area of renewable sources of energy, thus diversifying the sphere of their activities. The Association’s members were acquainted with some industrial developments.
ENI’s office organized a seminar for the Kazakhstan delegation, where procurement, global projects and construction executives told about ENI’s projects and about opportunities for Kazakhstan companies to be involved into such projects. At present, ENI participates in a dozen of oil and gas projects throughout the world, for which the map of deadlines for major capital projects was presented. Kazakhstan companies expressed interest in projects in Mozambique and the Far East. A presentation on the procedure for joining the list of ENI’s global suppliers was held, where it was noted that our companies could already become international suppliers of ENI. It should be mentioned that qualification procedures are rather similar to the selection procedures of TCO, KPO and NCOC.
ENI’s presentation shows that the company is distinguished by quick decision making for project launching. For example, while it usually takes 9 years from discovery to production launch, ENI reduced this cycle to 5 years. The company has its individual engineering hub — Eni Progetti — in charge for all engineering solutions. It should be noted that Eni Progetti is represented in Kazakhstan in partnership with Caspi Engineering LLP of Kazakhstan.
During the meeting, ENI’s representatives noted that Kazakhstan was a special region for the company, that the company focused on long-term cooperation with local oilfield service companies.
At the end of the seminar, the Kazakhstan delegation thanked ENI’s representatives by presenting souvenirs and held further talks at a friendly dinner.
It is important to mention that there are actually no borders for domestic companies and that many of them have enough competences to compete on the global market. In its turn, the Association will continue to organize foreign trips opening up new opportunities for domestic companies.
