Ivo in KazakhstanPublished: 20.02.06Piping Engineer, Ivo Nalezen, is flying the flag for Omega on the ACP-DMC Modification Project in Kazakhstan. In this project diary, Ivo offers us a rare insight into working and living in this unique and rapidly evolving destination. Despite the occasional trial, Ivo is thriving in the multicultural working environment and a town that he sees developing into a fully-fledged city day by day. The Job at Hand
The name of the project is ACP-DMC Modification, phase four. The project to be built-up in the Tengiz refinery. About the projectTengiz is located 350 km south of Atyrau (where Ivo is living - Ed.). Tengiz is one of the world's largest oil fields, estimated at up to 25 billion barrels, but recoverable oil is estimated between six and nine billion barrels only. Tengiz also has big reserves of natural gas. Tengiz oil contains a high amount of sulphur - up to 16%.The clientOmega's client is Vetco Aibel and Vetco Aibel is the engineering contractor for the main client TCO - Tengizchevroil. Tengizchevroil is a joint venture between ChevronTexaco (50%), ExxonMobil (25%), the Republic of Kazakhstan (20%) and Lukarco (5%). Ivo's roleI am working here as a piping engineer and PDMS specialist on design for caustic regeneration on DMC-1 and DMC-2.Languages at workWorking with local colleagues I'm speaking Russian and with the "expats" I'm using English.All about Kazakhstan
KazakhstanSize: 2 717 300 km2 - the ninth biggest country in the world, 7.5 times bigger than Norway and 34.5 times bigger than Czech Republic (Ivo's home country - Ed.).Population: 15 million. Largest city: Almaty (previously Alma-Ata) with 1.2M inhabitants. It was the capital up until 1997. Capital city: Astana with approximately 500 000 inhabitants. Official languages: Kazakh and Russian. Local currency: Tenge (KZT), 1 NOK = ~ 19.6 KZT, 1 USD = ~131 KZT. Religion: Kazakh - Islam; Inhabitants with European ancestry - Christianity assorted (mostly Orthodox). Kazakhstan is also home to the famous Baikonur Cosmodrome, which is rented by Russia until 2050. Cost of Living
Cost of living depends on how you look at things. If you compare the prices here and with the Norwegian prices, yes here is cheaper than in Norway, but not with big differences. For local people here it is expensive, because, the prices are disproportionate to their earning.
In small shops you can buy cheap and good fresh foodstuff without problems. At the bazaars you can buy cheap products, but not necessarily really good quality. WeatherAt the moment it's winter and very cold here. The temperature can get as low as –39°C. The previous week the temperature dropped to –38°C, so we were close to a new record. Every day we have sunshine and blue sky, but the low temperatures and wind factor make it uncomfortable. For two days it wasn't so cold, but it was snowing heavily and there was | ||||||||||||||||||