ASTANA – Canada and Kazakhstan are exploring opportunities to invest in efficient oil and gas production and carbon capture technologies as a key strategy to reduce Kazakhstan’s carbon footprint at the Canadian Alberta province energy session at the Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC) on Sept. 23 in Astana.
The event was attended by AIFC Chief Product Officer Daniyar Kelbetov, Canadian Ambassador Christopher Duggan, Energy Vice-minister Erlan Akkenzhenov, Kazakh Invest Deputy Chairman of the Management Board Madiyar Sultanbek, and government representative of Alberta Mario Krpan. Photo credit: The Astana Times
Bilateral talks with the Canadian delegation in the energy sector can foster the development and implementation of joint strategies for carbon management, supporting Kazakhstan’s goal of achieving net-zero emissions by 2060.
Longstanding partnership
Kazakh Vice Minister of Energy Erlan Akkenzhenov highlighted the longstanding relationship between Kazakhstan and Canada. Of the 100 Canadian companies operating in Kazakhstan, around one-third are in the oil and gas sector.
“Canadian companies continue to support Kazakhstan’s oil and gas resources, including maximizing the resources extracted from existing wells, as well as helping other companies to ensure that they meet Kazakhstan’s strict environmental and safety standards. I would like to note that the opportunities for Canadian companies to participate in investment projects in Kazakhstan are huge,” said Akkenzhenov, addressing the event.
Kazakhstan has also stepped up its investment climate in recent years in an effort to make it more attractive, particularly by offering necessary legislative support.
“While considering our commitments to improve our country’s investment climate, we welcome Canadian companies to consider implementing oil and gas projects in Kazakhstan, and therefore, we made some new legislative changes. For instance, we implemented a new tool called ‘improved model contract,’ which is designed for new offshore and complex onshore oil and gas fields. They include a lot of regulatory and fiscal preferences,” said Akkenzhenov.
The Kazakh official also noted the potential for cooperation in green energy and a low carbon agenda.
“It is impressive that Canada plans to reduce total emissions by 45% by 2030 from 2005 levels, as well as to reduce the methane emissions by 35% by 2030. On our end, Kazakhstan has also set up an ambitious target, taking into account our economic position, to achieve net zero by 2060. Given the global climate agenda and the Paris Agreement, especially the calls for tripling the world’s renewable energy capacity, Kazakhstan plans to reach 15%, which is around 7,000 megawatts of renewables in the country’s energy balance by 2030. By 2050, this figure should be around 50%,” said Akkenzhenov.
He highlighted that Kazakhstan is prepared to pursue cooperation in implementing cutting-edge technologies, including carbon capture, use and storage, hydrogen energy, and more efficient oil and gas production methods.
Insights from Canada’s largest oil-producing region
Mario Krpan, the director of Trade and Export Development in Europe at the Ministry of Jobs, Economy and Trade of the government of Alberta, represented Canada’s largest oil-producing region.
“Alberta is one of the ten provinces in Canada. It has 4.5 million people and has 80% of overall Canadian production of oil and 60% of natural gas production, which means that Alberta is producing, right now, around four million barrels per day of oil and around 12 Bcf [billion cubic feet] per day of natural gas production,” said Krpan.
Krpan highlighted Alberta’s experience in oil and gas, adding that Canada also offers advanced production support systems and technological innovations.
“Kazakhstan is a great example of a country that is thinking about the future, thinking about the new technologies, thinking about the new sources of energy. So, we are pleased to talk with Kazakhstan about our experience in carbon capture and storage. We have announced at least $5 billion in the projects that will take a tremendous amount of the CO2 in the ground,” said Krpan.
Canadian business keen to work with Kazakhstan
Al Duerr, a Canadian delegate and partner at Carbon Connect International, a company implementing methane reduction incentive programs in Alberta, spoke to The Astana Times, explaining how they were creating change in their own country by keeping carbon out of the environment. According to Duerr, Canada, as a leader in emission reduction, has valuable expertise to share with Kazakhstan.
Canadian delegate Al Duerr shared with The Astana Times correspondent Aibarshyn Akhmetkali how his company is creating change in Canada by keeping carbon out of the environment. Photo credit: The Astana Times
“My company, for example, was involved in a program over the last four years where the government of Canada put in place a program to address methane emissions where they would help the producers do a baseline. A baseline is measuring what you are emitting now. Once you know your baseline and what your sources of emissions are, you can then prioritize what you do,” he explained.
He noted that one key lesson is that with limited resources, one can’t do it all at once.
“You need to prioritize. You need to do some of the homework and do a baseline. Then, based on that baseline, focus on those things where you’re going to get the highest emissions at the lowest cost,” he said.
According to him, those suggestions are also equally relevant to Kazakhstan. The next step is to implement the necessary technologies.
“In the case of Alberta, the government invested about $40 million that resulted in proven emission reductions of 17 million tons of carbon – major investments,” he said.
“We have been doing methane emission reductions over the last ten years. I have my own company and competitors, but my own company and its equipment installed have resulted in a million tons a year in carbon reduction. That is the equivalent of a large carbon capture and storage facility at about a 20th of the cost,” added Duerr.
Along with achievements, numerous mistakes were made along the way.
“We all learn by sharing that knowledge, and we do hope that there will be opportunities for my one company to help the government of Kazakhstan and some of your major companies to prioritize those methane emissions and to identify the appropriate technologies to come in and implement,” he added.
