The 16th International Oil & Gas Exhibition and Conference (KIOGE 2008) opened at the Business Cooperation Centre Atakent in Almaty. It was attended by 550 companies from 30 countries. The main exhibit this year was a Mercedes car of the latest model, working on natural gas, and not on gasoline.
This year’s KIOGE has thus demonstrated its ecological commitment, officials said. The proposed idea belongs to a foreign company that has been operating in Kazakhstan for a long time. The main purpose of this design is to use the natural gas that is so unsparingly flared at almost Kazakhstan fields.
Almaty Mayor Akhmetjan Yesimov attended the opening of the exhibition and said he liked the idea of the new fuel from natural gas very much. No wonder, considering that the southern megalopolis is literally suffocating from the gas engine emissions. But what was most attractive to the mayor is that the buses could work on the natural gas fuel as well. So most likely, this innovation will soon be tested on the municipal transport.
Before the opening of KIOGE-2008, Kazakhstan’s Minister of Energy Sauat Mynbaev and national company KazMunaiGas President Kairgeldy Kabyldin, held a press conference that focused on oil prices forecasts and the impact of the world financial crisis on the investments in the oil and gas sector of Kazakhstan. According to Mynbaev, oil prices will be falling for a while, however, in the future, they will inevitably grow. “The market is very unstable now, with prices going up and down all the time. But in the future, the growth (of prices) is inevitable, as the requirements of such countries as China and India will definitely have their effect,” the Kazakh minister said.
The minister also said that the world financial crisis had affected, to a certain extent, the subsurface users’ investment plans. “The crisis, no doubt, has had its impact, as the markets are closed for borrowing. Those subsurface users who wanted to invest borrowed funds are now rushing about, so short-term adjustments of investment volumes are inevitable,” Mynbaev said.
He noted, however, that, at present, the resource sector remains the most attractive to the investors. Regarding the Kazakh national company’s position with regard to their assets in Georgia, Kabyldin explained that he did not rule out the possibility of selling Tbilgas, but only if they receive a very good proposal. As to the port of Batumi, however, the national company has every intention to keep it.