Kazakhstan's Energy Ministry plans to require subsoil users operating under the Improved Model Contract (IMC) to gradually replace foreign specialists with local staff. However, the country's largest projects — Tengiz, Kashagan, and Karachaganak — do not formally fall under these requirements, reports infohub.kz.
At a government meeting, Energy Minister Yerlan Akkenzhenov presented a program aimed at building a talent pool, training Kazakh specialists, and prioritizing their candidacies in hiring. For complex projects, there is an obligation to develop and agree with the Energy Ministry a program to replace foreign workers with Kazakh specialists.
Additionally, extractive companies are required to allocate 1% of their output to training Kazakh personnel. For 2023-2025, about 62.7 billion tenge has been earmarked for these purposes.
However, the three largest projects — Tengiz (Tengizchevroil), Kashagan (NCOC), and Karachaganak (KPO) — operate under old agreements, not the IMC, although they meet the criteria for "complex" projects. The Energy Ministry's press service clarified that the foreign staff replacement program does not apply to them.
It is worth recalling that, according to Labor Minister Askarbek Yertayev, 30-40% of technical vacancies in Kazakhstan remain unfilled, forcing companies to attract foreign labor. About 300,000 foreigners arrive in the country annually.