News and Events

From time to time our industry faces a catastrophic event that forces us to re-evaluate our approach and technology to see if we are doing the right business.

Examples include the Tengiz field accident, the Piper Alpha oil platform disaster in the North Sea in 1988, and the explosion on the platform that developed the Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010.

These incidents led to a review of the approach to HSE activities, reversing the company's attitude to security issues and the style of personnel competency management, production reliability improvement systems and emergency planning - all in order to achieve accident-free production.

In KazMunayGaz, we are not limited to regulations and procedures, but radically change the culture of doing business when it comes to risk management in our operations, our capabilities, our technologies and our security programs. We are moving from a business model that meets the standards to a proactive model that requires common standards, processes and procedures throughout the company, and is the foundation of such changes - our step forward.

After several years of data collection, we got an understanding of the main factors affecting the safety performance of our operations. Problems with internal procedures, training and competence of employees are key factors that influence the reliability of our production. Armed with new data, we are now creating targeted programs to ensure reliability, which in the process of modernization will encompass human factors.

Despite the importance of technologies designed to reduce risk, no technological innovation can solve the problem of rash decisions. We recognize that people are the determining factor. Therefore, ensuring the competence of employees becomes an integral part of employee development and we are working on developing more rigorous programs to prepare the next generation of managers for the environment in which they are presumed to manage. More than 30 years after the Tengiz incident, the safety and health systems improved to the point where there is an understanding of the nature of the incidents and the number of incidents is at an acceptably low level. However, we will not be satisfied until the number of incidents falls to zero.

Senior executives are responsible for ensuring that at all levels of the organization, from procurement to production activities, there is an understanding of risk management and security processes that are key to decision-making, and more importantly, managers are also responsible for the right of every employee to do the right thing and safely without fear of consequences.

Our industry is a complex, diverse and competitive business, where every company, from large to small, must meet higher standards. A ready-to-interact industry and staff involved will ensure the development of advanced practices, technologies and training programs to make progress on our way forward to trouble-free production.

Sauat Mynbayev
Chairman of the Board JSC NC "KazMunayGas"