An oil town on the steppes near the Caspian Sea: this is the new mega-project acquired by JV Bonatti/Isker in Kazakhstan as part of the development plan for the Tengiz oil field, the country's second most important.

The contract, worth a total of 500 million dollars, will see Bonatti working with its Kazakh partner, the "Isker Group", in the construction of a new residential camp on behalf of TCO Consortium (TengizChevrOil), present in the Tengiz field since 1993 and controlled by Chevron with a 50% share. The other partners include ExxonMobil with 25%, the local KazMunayGas with 20% and LukArco, controlled, by the Russian Lukoil, with 5%.

This "turnkey" project will be a true-to-life oil town, to be handed over in the next 34 months, and will include engineering, materials procurement and construction of a fully equipped area covering a total of 150,000 sq.m with structures for accommodating 5000 people, together with offices, restaurants, sports facilities, spaces dedicated to safety and maintenance services, as well as the technical areas necessary for the operation of the entire complex.

One of the distinctive features of the project is the permanent nature of the new structures.

In its tender specification, TCO has in fact specified a type of construction that can guarantee a building "life-span" of at least 30 years. This specific requirement depends on the fact that Kazakhstan industrial policy relies on and encourages those foreign investments which "persist" on its territory and are promoting the so-called "local content". The structures of the new Tengiz camp will therefore provide the oil business with further opportunities to influence the local economy, with positive effects for allied industries and employment in the Kazakh regions of Atyrau and Mangystau.

2000 local people will be employed in running the "town", resulting in more than 7000 people being present in the Tengiz area each day.n the execution of its project, over 90% of Bonatti personnel will also be local, in line with the principles of its development policy directed towards establishing itself in the countries in which it operates and promoting the use of local resources.

The project is part of a much larger plan to develop the oil-rich zone of Tengiz, a "super-giant" onshore field (covering 400 km²) discovered at the end of the 1970's. It is the sixth largest in the world and by far the deepest, with reserves estimated as being between 6 and 9 billion barrels of crude: in 2013 alone, extraction reached 150 million. Over the next few years, 28 billion dollars will be invested in the area for new explorations, optimisation of operational sites and expansion of the production and transport capacities for the extracted hydrocarbons.

Chevron, the consortium leader, has recently announced its intention to increase the 500,000 barrels/day production, doubling current figures.

For Chevron, Kazakhstan is one of the more crucial markets in its 2014 budget (a total of 42 billion dollars divided between the various strategic countries, such as Nigeria, Canada, Angola, Congo and Argentina). The California group has a turnover of 260 billion dollars, 65,000 employees, 3.5 million barrels of oil produced per day, and is one of the five major international companies in the sector alongside Shell, Exxon, BP and Gazprom.

Bonatti will execute the project together with its local partner Isker Group, the most emblematic company in west Kazakhstan in the engineering, construction and services sector.

As early as the preliminary tender stages, the project had already demonstrated its position in a highly demanding and competitive international context. While, on the one hand, Chevron has made use of design consultants from leading American engineering companies such as Fluor and Worley Parsons, on the other Bonatti/Isker have had to compete with giants such as Bechtel - one of the leading General Contractors in the world - and from driven local companies such as KazStroyService (KSS) and Kentz - NefteStroyServices (NSS).

The activities provided for in the contract are now in their start-up phase.

Bonatti, already present and active in Kazakhstan with high profile projects such as the construction of onshore plants at Kashagan (currently in the start-up phase), can draw on the support of its new logistics/operational base inaugurated at the end of 2013. Situated in Atyrau, the "oil capital" of Kazakhstan, the new Bonatti base has a capacity for 500/700 people and is structured to provide logistics support to operational areas in the country, such as Tengiz.

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