Concerning Kazakhstan:
We have had quite a battle raging here and many have expressed differing opinions, but now I doubt there is little left for anyone to say on either side that hasn't already been said (unless you are John).
In hopes we can move on, I am posting an interesting article (that was published this week) concerning Hurricane Hydrocarbons which I believe, sets an excellent example for other companies like Steppe and Antares who also have interests in Kazakhstan:
Oil firm plants seed for future; Kazakhstan Connection
By Tony Seskus, CALGARY HERALD; SOUTHAM NEWSPAPERS
August 04 1998
During a torrid summer in 1996, the future of the farming village of Karaozek looked as bleak as the vast Central Asian desert that surrounded it.
The workers at the state-owned farm hadn't been paid in months, poorly planned crops wilted in the 40C heat and some people had lost hope.
Much of that has changed thanks to a Calgary oil company that doesn't see profit and compassion as oil and water. When Hurricane Hydrocarbons Ltd. bought a state-owned oil company now worth 60,000 barrels of oil a day, it also bought the local farm.
In a deal the government hoped would help with the transition from communism to democracy, Hurricane bought 1,000 camels, 25,000 sheep, 2,500 horses and 5,000 cattle on 1.1 million hectares of land.
COMPANY KEPT FARM
The company could have shed the farm's assets for profit, but chose to keep it running instead.
Hurricane is trying to bring farm operations up to Western levels of productivity and management, and put a professor from central Alberta's Olds College in charge.
Rob Smith has introduced modern farm and management methods.
"I used to think of oil companies as being very profit driven,"Smith said on a recent visit home. "Hurricane's goal is to make Kazakhstan a better country ... so I jumped at the chance to work with them."
Hurricane wants to feed its 5,000 employees and the farm's 640 workers with their own healthy food. Its meat-packing plant already produces a ton of meat for the oilfield staff daily.
It's also hoped that the farm can be a vehicle for change, helping employees and their families to adopt democracy and inspire individual creativity.
Whether those goals will be reached will be seen in time, but it has gained at least one important asset: respect.
When Hurricane arrived, it paid its employees several months in back wages and promised no non-management layoffs for 18 months.
NEW SUMMER CAMPS
Later, it converted a communist "Young Pioneers" camp in the nearby city of Kyzylorda into summer camps. Lessons now range from crafts to computers, and all children from the local orphanage are invited.
The camps have given many of the students their first medicals.
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