OREANDA-NEWS. October 21, 2014. Karachaganak Petroleum Operating B.V. (KPO) and GE Oil & Gas — Nuovo Pignone announced that they have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).

The ceremony of the MoU signing took place at the WestKaznvest Forum in Uralsk.

According to the MoU, KPO and GE Oil & Gas — Nuovo Pignone have agreed to develop a coordinated plan of actions that will help understand the equipment and services requirements of the Karachaganak project, matching, where possible, the capabilities of GE Oil & Gas — Nuovo Pignone.

Amir Zaitenov, a representative of the Authority, said: “The signed Memorandum of Understanding aims to foster long term local content development, technology transfer and growth of the industrial sector through localisation of technology and services in the Western Kazakhstan region to provide long term economic benefit for the Republic of Kazakhstan”.

Supported by the Authority, the companies have also agreed to monitor the performance and to regularly report on the progress of implementation of joint initiatives.

Damiano Ratti, KPO General Director, said: “Signing of the MoU with GE Oil & Gas is a new milestone in KPO’s endeavour to maximise the involvement of Kazakh companies in the Karachaganak project. Working in close co-operation with the Ministry of Energy of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Authority and with their full support, KPO is committed to the RoK government local content initiatives”.

“Local suppliers’ capacity building through sustainable development and skills transfer are central to the way we work”, Damiano Ratti noted.

“Successful implementation of this initiative will create the conditions for the development of more complex services technologies able to meet the needs of Kazakhstan’s oil and gas industry”, said Alessio Mariani, Russia & CIS Region Leader for GE Oil & Gas. “We always partner with our customers to manage complexity, bringing GE’s experience to the oil and gas business from other industries and helping customers to overcome oil and gas industry challenges”, Mariani continued.