From executive committee of “KAZENERGY” Association:

From members and partners of Association:

From other organizations:

Standing in for Mark Rollins, Chairman of Coordinating Council (further – CC) of “KAZENERGY” Association (further – Association), Nigel Gould-Davies, PCA Vice President of BG Group, attended the next session of CC. In welcoming speech Mr. Gould-Davies noted the importance of the development of technical and professional education (further - TPE) of the country and drew members’ attention to some organizational issues  of CC work. In particular it was recommended to provide few minutes at the end of each session for discussion and planning the works which should be done by the next meeting. The minutes should be approved within two weeks after session. Besides Mr. Gould-Davies suggested to hold next sessions of CC in September and December - before and after Eurasian Power Forum. At the end of the speech he wished participants fruitful work according to the agenda.

Dzhambulat Sarsenov, general director of Association also stressed that session feedback from the members of CC shall be provided and it would be reasonably to hold the fourth session of CC at the end of November because results and suggestions of CC would be useful for the participants of the World Petroleum Congress (the beginning of December) where the team of Association is applied for.

In opening speech Assan Nugmanov, Co-chairman of CС called members of CC to speed up practical recommendations’ development on TPE issues as they do not leave agenda in the Government and ministries. Problem solutions on professional training, education and nationalization issues will be submitted by organizations separately and it will allow to determine concrete actions which can be useful for other subsoil companies.

According to the agenda of the session Co-chairman of CС called upon Sholpan Erzhigitova, director of HR department of JSC NC “KazMunaiGas”. Mrs. Erzhigitova designated following basic actions planned for the next half-year within the framework of working group activity on professional standards’ development: the completion of the pilot project on basic professions of oil and gas production, procedure development and its submitting to all interested state authorities, development of the project of field professional standard, approving the field framework with other leading companies, such as “MangistauMunaiGas”, “Exploration and Production”, “Tengizchevroil”, participation in the development of the concept of national qualification system.

With progress report for the first half of 2011 and action plan for the second half of 2011of “Nationalization and Business Leadership” working group appeared Zaure Alzhanova, vice-president of BG International Limited (Kazakhstan). Besides Mrs. Alzhanova has presented suggestions on the next CC session holding: to present the Leadership Development Program done by “Samruk-Kazyna” Fund / “Nazarbayev University”, to define current status of the Secondment, its challenges and opportunities.

Representing the interests of the State in the field of education Sayasat Nurbek,  president of JSC “Center of international programs” gave an overview of “Bolashak”  international scholarship, designated some problems in this sphere: the lack of precise planning of personnel need in engineer-technical field, regional disproportion in employment, applications for specialists’ education from state and national companies, poorly reflecting their real requirements which became the reason of high-educated program graduates’ non-employment. Therefore more active participation of field associations, for example National economic chamber of Kazakhstan “Atameken”, is required. Besides Mr. Nurbek called large employers - members of Association to cooperate via program-aimed method which core was in young experts’ training according to the target application from potential customers.

With the progress report on working permits Assan Nugmanov, Co-chairman of CC appeared who regretfully stated the fact that for objective cause today the reforming of working permits’ system was theoretical researches only. NCOC, Karachaganak companies were interested in these questions seriously, nevertheless, it was not possible to coordinate any practical actions with them. Mr. Nugmanov called business - structures interested in solving of working permits’ problems to challenge state authorities’ suggestions which had a negative effect on the development of oil-and-gas industry in general. In Mr. Nugmanov opinion, Kazakhstan with its wide work experience in oil-and-gas industry is labor-shortage region till today where there are no qualified experts capable to provide world class level of industrial and ecological safety. Therefore it is necessary to find balance between local staff training and foreign labor force attraction.

There are operators and subcontractors at local level and it is impossible to force them to develop local personnel. Therefore Mr. Nugmanov suggested to sell working permits and called companies for decisive actions and state structures - for open dialogue where it would be possible to discuss the given actual problem.

Making comments on this situation Zaure Alzhanova noted that the Association is called to protect rights and interests of companies – its members in the face of state initially. Therefore it is required to point up this problem solving.

Continuing theme of qualified personnel training Timurlan Altayev, president of “InKaz Consulting” LLP appeared. Being a member of working group at Government of Republic of Kazakhstan on the development of updated principles of Kazakhstan content he noted that except goods and services personnel was the important component of local content too. Mr. Altayev, the founder of republican public association with the basis of graduates of leading world universities offered oil and gas courses as the pilot project on the example of Atyrau interregional center (further – AIC).

Wishing business fortune Mr. Sarsenov agreed with suggested practice and called Mr. Altayev to work on the project of Wikipedia in Kazakh language creation and to coordinate works with API through Association.

Svetlana Stragnefors, President of the Association on Non-destructive Testing and Technical Diagnostics appeared with the presentation on topic “Introduction of alterations to the list of the most demanded specialties of higher, technical and vocational education in oil and gas sector within the next 3-5 years, approved by the Ministry of Oil and Gas of The Republic of Kazakhstan from 16/9/2010 ("Professional Certification Program” section)”. Analyzing current situation with  TPE Mrs. Stragnefors noted that there were only two organizations at present in Kazakhstan took international accreditation procedure on preparation of national accreditation agency with further experts’ training, namely “Association on Non-destructive Testing and Technical Diagnostics” and “KazWeld”. Moreover, there are many companies without this accreditation. Therefore Mrs. Stragnefors noted that explanatory work on professional training programs’ accreditation and certification issues done together with members of Association and Committee on technical regulation and metrology was required.  Mrs. Stragnefors suggested Association to expand the specified list with the separate block "Professional Certification Programs”.

Mr. Sarsenov expressed his interest in given project and suggested Association to consider an opportunity of certification of educational bases on technical staff preparation. To achieve this Association shall take the procedure of accreditation as the agency on certification of oil and gas programs preparation.

John Raduch, adviser of SPIE Oil and Gas Services appeared with the proposal for Labour Market Survey sponsorship to Association Members. Mr. Raduch designated following purposes of research: to understand the technical/personnel needs of the Oil & Gas industry in the Republic of Kazakhstan and make the review of training requirements (Quantity, Quality and Technical Level). According to the memorandum on cooperation in AIC development signed on April, 29, 2011 Mr. Raduch emphasized the importance of Association coordination work in TPE issues and the importance of Training, Professional Development and Re-training of oil-and-gas experts. The mechanism or methodology of certification of educational institutions’ graduates and companies’ personnel should be developed according to the international requirements of the oil-and-gas industry. In that case AIC will become a platform where training and certification on NVQ, HND, OPITO, NAIT/BTEC courses will be carried out.

In the conclusion Mr. Raduch noted that the document with concrete personnel needs and the basic tendencies of Kazakhstan oil-and-gas labor force development will become the result of given research.

Mr. Sarsenov recommended session participants to determine the necessity of this research and then it would be possible to consider the mechanism of sponsorship.

Ergali Dosmagambet, project manager of JSC “Nazarbayev University” expressed his interest in the given research and noted that within the framework of realization of new law on science this project’s financing would become possible after passing independent international examination procedure.

According to the remark of Mr. Nugmanov the given research will become the precedent of scientific approach to the analysis of labor force problems.

Mr. Gould-Davies also emphasized the importance of labor market studying and expressed the readiness and openness to consider given proposal very seriously, in more detail, including the tender procedure and necessary  financial resources for the proposed study.

Zaure Alzhanova also expressed her consent with the urgency and necessity of given research, and stated that all stages of the implementation of this project be as transparent as possible to the members of the Association.

Kadyrbek Boribekov, Director of the Department of Technical and Professional Education of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan, presented new TPE management model which core was in creation of “Kasipkor” holding. The purpose of this holding is the approbation of corporate management model, consolidation of state and private resources, innovative technologies, norms and methods improving quality of professional training. Mr. Boribekov offered to designate questions of state-private partnership as one of the directions of CC work. On behalf of the Ministry of Education and Science Mr. Boribekov also determined the importance of the research offered by Mr. Raduch which had scientific - applied character. Besides he expressed readiness to work on professional training according to the system of graduates’ certification which should be developed by representatives of industry.

At the end of session Mr. Gould-Davies noted that CC has made some progress already and called members of Association for concrete actions and to speed up activities in the given direction.

Thus, according to the earlier prepared project of session’s DECISIONS it is required:

1. To consider sponsorship mechanism of “Oil-and-gas labor market and personnel training system research”. In case of approval of this proposal to allocate sponsorship duties among Association members. For companies-members of Association to submit their proposals on given project financing by August, 9, 2011.

2. For companies-members of Association to consider business perspectives and opportunity of approbation of methodic on professional standards developed JSC NC “KazMunaiGas”.

3. The member companies of the Association will consider the possibility of participating in the pilot project proposed by the Working Group on Nationalisation and Business Leadership. On the agenda of the next meeting, a report on the programme of leadership development, worked out by the Samruk-Kazyna and the Nazarbayev University for the implementation of the first stage of this project, will be included.

4. For companies-members and partners of Association to define the necessity of “Work permits on foreign labor force attraction” working group and to submit their view of cooperation in this direction by August, 9, 2011.