Kazakhstan, a republic in Central Asia, is bordered on the north by Russia; on the east by China; on the south by Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan; and on the west by the Caspian Sea and Russia. Positioned on the historical Silk Trade route between Europe and Asia, it offers historical monuments as well as diverse landscapes, mountains, rivers and lakes. A huge country covering a territory equivalent to the whole of Western Europe, four times the size of Texas, it currently has double the oil reserves of the North Sea with over 35 billion barrels and by 2015 the current projections are for oil reserves of more than 100 billion barrels.

Kazakhstan has vast mineral resources and enormous economic potential. Since independence, achieved in 1991, there has been major foreign investment in the Caspian oil sector. The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline began operating in summer 2005 and a pipeline to China was opened in late 2005, providing necessary export routes for rapidly increasing oil production. Oil development has brought rapid economic growth.

Industry experts and the U.S. Commercial Service in Almaty estimate that the current market for oil and gas field equipment and services will grow to $6.8 billion in 2008, and will continue growing at 15-30% annually over the next three years.  There are opportunities for U.S. companies in virtually every sub sector associated with oil extraction, processing, and transportation.  The best prospects include: geological exploration, geophysics, hydrogeology, drilling, research and data management, laboratory studies, oil spill cleanup technologies, and pipeline equipment and services.

U.S. oil and gas field equipment suppliers have the potential for solid growth over the next decade as new fields are brought on-stream and secondary recovery methods are introduced to existing deposits.  The most promising sub sectors are the following: offshore/onshore oil and gas drilling and production equipment; turbines, compressors and pumps for pipeline applications; measurement and process control equipment for pipeline applications; industrial automation, control and monitoring systems for refineries, gas processing and petrochemical plants, seismic processing and interpretation, petroleum software development, sulfur removal and disposal technologies, well stimulation and field abandonment services.

Plenty of other opportunities exist for U.S. companies producing oil and gas field equipment and machinery such as drilling and wellhead equipment, Christmas trees, valves, pumps, motors, compressors, electrical submersible and jet pumps, underwater repair equipment, and oil spill containment equipment.  Good prospects also exist for U.S. small- and medium-size firms offering downstream engineering and such services as fabrication, welding, engineering services and testing in accordance with API and ASME standards. 

Port City of Aqtau