Parties to the Caspian Energy Hub (CEH) have reached an agreement on the development of the CEH.

Prior to this, memorandums of understanding were signed with three leading educational facilities to provide services as part of the CEH initiative to further enhance Kazakhstan’s utilisation of its oil and gas reserves.

CEH was first announced last month in Astana by the Government of Kazakhstan, Gulf Finance House (GFH), PFC Energy International and four Kazakh partners.

The university of Texas at Austin and Delft Technical University in the Netherlands were  identified as the schools that will form the foundation of a locally accredited specialised college (LASC).

These two institutions with accredited programmes in the field of energy will be working together as partners towards the enhancement of educational services at CEH.

At the same time,  LMK Resources (LMKR), Dubai, has been selected to provide world-class technical training programs and operate two state of the art geophysical data interpretation and visualization facilities at the Technical and Services Center (TSC).

“The Caspian Energy Hub is an important and integral part of the socio-economic development of Kazakhstan.   We have the vision, the will, and the knowledge base to implement an industrial, service, research and educational center of excellence that will attract the biggest names in world energy,” said president of the Republic of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev.

The announcement of the educational component of CEH was made during a ceremony at this year’s World Economic Forum at Sharm El Sheikh  to mark the signing of an agreement between all the partners, including the Kazakhstan Sustainable Development Fund (Kazyna); Kazakhstan Holding for Management of State Assets (Samruk); Mangystau Investment Company (Mangystau); and Dunie Stock Energy. 

One of the critical enablers to optimise the macro-economic and sustainable development potential of the planned CEH, is the development of human capital. Part of the vision for CEH is to make it a major educational, training and recruiting center for the Caspian region. A key element of this vision is the provision of specialized educational facilities through specialized colleges.

Located in Aktau on the shore of Kazakhstan’s Caspian Sea, the proposed Caspian Energy Hub, Kazakhstan will represent the latest in a series of energy focused business clusters that Gulf Finance House has planned across the Middle East and Asia.

The Energy City concept was conceptualised by GFH and PFC Energy International, an international energy consulting firm.

Being the latest “Energy City” project, following Qatar, India and the proposed Energy City in Libya, this venture expects to attract the biggest names in the world energy to Kazakhstan, and deliver high returns on equity for GFH investors.  – TradeArabia News Service