At a meeting of the Oil and Gas Industry Committee of the National Chamber, chaired by Daniyar Abulgazin, the results of last year legislative work were summed up and vectors for further development were discussed.
As Asset Magauov, the General Director of KAZENERGY Association, noted, the key issues for the industry were the launch of trade in liquefied petroleum gas and the development of amendments aimed at opening exports of petroleum products, which will be possible due to the completed modernization of domestic refineries.
“Since the beginning of the year, the pilot has been selling liquefied petroleum gas through electronic trading platforms. From February 5 to February 15, the first electronic bidding for the February delivery plan was held – 5 850 tons. In addition, the Mazhilis supported our amendments regarding the formation of a delivery plan by months indicating the volumes of oil products obligatory for sale in the Republic of Kazakhstan and the volumes for export from Kazakhstan. The bill provides for the right to export products only for oil producers and oil suppliers,” - said Asset Magauov.
In his turn, the Chairman of the Committee Daniyar Abulgazin emphasized that it is necessary to approach the issue of petrol export as prudently as possible.
“It is necessary to consider export volumes very carefully with the Ministry of Energy and stakeholders. It is important not to create a stir in the market during sowing works,” - said Daniyar Abulgazin.
In addition, the Committee raised questions of interest to subsoil users. As Zangar Nogaybay, the executive director of the KAZENERGY Association, noted, the association together with the subsoil users developed proposals for improving the Subsoil Code.
“In order to increase oil production, a package of amendments has been developed aimed at stimulating investment in the development of hard-to-recover hydrocarbon deposits, at increasing the recovery rate by encouraging the development of new exploration and production technologies, as well as testing existing advanced exploration and production technologies at scientific and technological test sites. At the same time, we need support in the preparation of economic calculations and models according to these amendments,” - said Zangar Nogaybay.
Readiness to support the initiatives of the National Chamber and the KAZENERGY Association was expressed by the Chairman of the Board of JSC NC KazMunayGas Alik Aidarbayev.
KazMunayGas actively assisted in modeling when preparing past tax-related amendments packages. I do see positive results from this work: there are separate norms in the legislation, which are aimed at supporting hard-to-recover hydrocarbon deposits. However, not everything in practice still works, so we are interested and ready to provide expert support,” - said Alik Aidarbayev.
The big front of work for the current year, according to Daniyar Abulgazin, the Chairman of the Committee, should be taken up by the development of a new Environmental Code
“Work on the reform of environmental legislation is actively underway. On February 14, the business community received the first version of the common part of the environmental code. Two meetings of the working group were held at the KAZENERGY playground, one introductory meeting on the issues of the environmental impact assessment procedure was held at the Ministry of Energy. In general, now the subsoil users are preparing their package of proposals and comments,” - said Rustem Kabzhanov, the Executive Director of the KAZENERGY Association.
In his turn, Yevgeny Bolgert, Member of the Board of the National Chamber, noted that RPE RK has close partnerships with both the KAZENERGY Association and other accredited associations, and is always ready to provide its platform for the formation of a consolidated position of business and dialogue with government bodies.
In the final part of the meeting, the members of the Committee heard reports on the work of the KAZENERGY Association and the Union of Oilfield Service Companies of Kazakhstan on the results of 2018.
