The 3rd Youth Oil and Gas Symposium “Astana Munay Fest” was held by Nazarbayev University SPE Student Chapter on 5-6 April, 2019 at Nazarbayev University in Nur-Sultan. More than 120 students and young professionals from Russia and the whole Caspian Region attended this event. This symposium was of great interest even to the school students, the youngest delegate was 12 years old.
The 3rd Youth Oil and Gas Symposium “Astana Munay Fest” was a two-day event being hosted by Nazarbayev University SPE Student Chapter with a support of Total Kazakhstan, NU School of Mining and Geosciences, MANUL and KAZENERGY Youth Committee. The goal of the event was to provide a platform, which would bring students and professionals from Russia and the whole Caspian Region together to generate thoughtful discussions about the future innovations and career opportunities in the petroleum industry. Traditionally the Deputy Chairman of KAZENERGY Association, Uzakbay Karabalin, attended this event to support young professionals. During the opening ceremony of ‘Astana Munay Fest’ Uzakbay Karabalin has mentioned the importance of supporting the youth community in organizing such events and exchanging the experience of oil and gas industry experts with students. Also, Pascal Breant (Total’s Country Chair in Kazakhstan), Chingiz Seisekenov (Deputy Director-General of KazTransOil), Loretta O’Donnell (Vice Provost for Academic Affairs of Nazarbayev University) and Ali Shafiei (Nazarbayev University SPE student chapter Advisor) delivered their speeches.
Students of all majors had a chance to meet national and international experts of oil and gas industry who had shared their knowledge, expertise and experiences. Panel Discussion was one of the events held as a part of the symposium. The topic of the discussion was “Transformation of Kazakhstan’s Oil & Gas Industry by 2030” and main speakers were senior management representatives of Oil & Gas companies in Kazakhstan. This time Total’s Country Chair in Kazakhstan - Pascal Breant, Managing Director of Agip Caspian Sea B.V. - Nicolo Aggogeri, Country Chair of Shell Kazakhstan -Olivier Lazare and Deputy General Director on Production in KMG SRI - Andrey Sveshnikov, had exchanged their views.
The Career EXPO session was organized in the framework of ‘Astana Munay Fest’ for the first time. Schlumberger and KazTransOil delivered their presentations for interested students. The representative of Schlumberger was Gafur Assylkhanov, who is a HR manager in the company, while KazTransOil was presented by Deputy General Director, Sabit Arynov.
Furthermore, the Paper Contest was held as a part of the “Astana Munay Fest”, which provided a great chance to promote research in upstream and downstream areas of the industry and to prompt the exchange of knowledge about inventions and innovations between participants and guests. The presentations of research works were evaluated by Ivan Korotkov (KazMunayGas), Dr. Peyman Pourafshary and Dr. Muhammad Hashmet (Nazarbayev University). The winners of the Paper Contest became students of Nazarbayev University, Yerik Tassanbayev and Yeldos Sagatay, and students of Kazakh British Technical University, Zhandos Orazalin and Assem Orazgaliyeva.
The workshops were conducted to involve the delegates into the learning process during the second day. Astana Business Campus representatives and Dr. Peyman Pourafshary shared their knowledge on leadership and entrepreneurship skills development and oil industry related topics.
In order to strengthen the leadership and problem-solving skills and to promote communication among students and professionals such events as Business and Intellectual Games were conducted. Business Games in the format of the Case Contest were conducted among delegates. KazMunayGas: Shaping the oil & gas future Case was proposed to contestants, and best solution presented was determined by juries: Assem Mukazhanova (President of KAZENERGY Youth Committee), Zhenis Akhmetov (NCOC N.V.), Chingiz Aitzhanov (Astana Business Campus) and Telkozha Mustafa (Nazarbayev University).
During the closing rceremony, all the winners of contests and games were awarded and received their valuable prizes. The final speeches were delivered by Arkhat Sultabayev (MANUL LLP), Kadisha Dairova (Nazarbayev University Vice President for Student Affairs and International Cooperation) and Chingiz Aitzhanov (Astana Business Campus representative).
