OBJECTIVES

​

The Oil, Gas, and Renewables Group committee has the objective of facilitating communication and networking for members and interested parties in the oil, gas, and renewables industry in Kazakhstan and the UK.

​

THE COMMITTEE

​

The Committee is composed of the following individuals: Rustam Kuanshaliyev, Anatoly Leontiev, John Morrow, Fergus Robertson, Aida Sitdikova, David D Skeels (Chairman), and Ainur Sospanova. Their biographies are shown below.

​

GENERAL COMMENTS ABOUT ACTIVITIES & PLANS

​

The committee plans to have a number of events during each year with guest speakers actively involved in this sphere.

Both Society members and non-members are invited to express their interest, in participation/joining our mailing list, to Membership Secretary (email address: secretariat@bksoc.org.uk).

​

COMMITTEE MEMBER BIOGRAPHIES

 

Rustam Kuanshaliyev is the Vice-President and Co owner of IGS, a leading multidiscipline construction and asset management company in Western Kazakhstan (heart of the Eurasian oil and gas realm). Rustam over the last 14 years has worked in the upstream industry leading teams in the regions most complex oil&gas projects developing the onshore facilities of the petrochemical complex of Kashagan (site prep. and utilities In Karabotan), the sweeting of the train 4 of the Karachaganak oil&gas condensate field and the asset development projects for Chevrons SGI and SGP projects in Tengiz and Korolev Fields. Rustam has a foundation in Mechanical Engineering (BEng) and later on went on to specialize in Innovation Management at Imperial College London (MSc). Rustam leads IGS’ UK establishment as well as being a director of a Kazakh Renewables company KazSolar.

 

Anatoly Leontiev - Senior Regional Corporate Relations Advisor for CIS Countries, Shell. Anatoly has over 25 years of Government Relations/External Affairs professional experience having worked in diverse stakeholder environments across CIS countries. Anatoly joined Shell in 1999 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan – this is where he is originally from.  Since then, he worked in government affairs and public relations roles on different assignments in Central Asia, subsequently representing GR expertise in NBD projects in a wider region. With Shell Kazakhstan he has been for more than 15 years where in addition to his primary government relations duties he was managing special Shell led projects, including Kazakhstan Oil and Gas Technology Roadmap, Geochemical Center of Excellence in Atyrau, Shell flagship Pavilion at EXPO 2017, deployment of solar systems in key cities in KZ under the solar for schools’ initiative. In his current role he leads on corporate relations regional activity supporting the existing business and NBD opportunities in the region with particular focus on countries where Shell is not directly present, that covers Central Asia and Caucasus.

 

John Morrow - is a Chartered Engineer and has over 30 years of experience in oil and gas. John was head of exploration and production at Glencore plc from 2011 to 2019. Prior to that he was COO at Bowleven plc.  He spent 10 years at BG Group from 1995 where he was Managing Director for the giant Karachaganak field in Kazakhstan. He subsequently worked as project director for Middle East LNG. John spent the first 15 years of his career at Royal Dutch Shell where he held operational and commercial roles in the UK, Malaysia and the Netherlands.

​

Fergus Robertson - has over 35 years international experience in oil & gas senior management. In 1998 he formed Strategic Partners International introducing global oil & gas contractors to Kazakh partners, government and major operators creating successful joint ventures. During nearly 20 years in the Caspian region, mainly Kazakhstan, he won substantial contracts for the UK oil & gas sector.  He was the First Honorary Consul for the RoK in Scotland, was a Member Advisory Board of the Kazakh & British Technical University and founding director of The British Kazakh Society.

​

Aida Sitdikova - is the Director of Energy, Eurasia and Sustainable Infrastructure Group at the EBRD where she heads a team covering a diverse group of transition countries in Central Asia, Caucasus, and Turkey.  Ms. Sitdikova has over 20 years of experience in emerging markets with both the private and public sectors, leading complex financings involving debt, equity, syndications, and policy dialogue with the Governments. Prior to joining the Bank in 2001, Ms. Sitdikova worked in private equity.  She holds an MBA degree in International Finance from Thunderbird, the American Graduate School of International Management, and a CFA designation.

​

David D Skeels (Chairman) - has an upstream oil and gas background in exploration, field development and company representation/relationship management. He represented Dea in Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan from 2008 to 2015. Prior to that he was 10 years with the BG Group as Country Manager in Kazakhstan and 20 years with Conoco in Libya, the UK, Chad, the US, Indonesia and West Siberia. Today he is a Director of the BKS as well as several start-up companies. He was the founding Chairman of the Kazakhstan Petroleum Association.

​

Ainur Sospanova - is currently the director of «Smart Volt» LLP and is the Chairperson of the Board of the Renewable Energy Association "QAZAQ GREEN". Ainur has extensive experience in interacting with government agencies, local executive bodies , major international investors of RES, IFOs (EBRD, ADB, EDB, AIIB IFC), and international organizations (UNDP, IRENA, USAID, UNIDO, DENA). Has experience in organizing and holding major international events, including as a speaker, and moderator. Ainur has 30 years of experience in the development of new technologies in IT and energy. For the last 13 years, she has been engaged in the development of RES in the Republic of Kazakhstan. She also has 10 years of public service experience in the Ministries of Ecology and Energy. As the Director of the RES Department in the state agency, Ainur participated in the creation of the existing RES support system in the Republic of Kazakhstan.