AtyrauHub and Prime Source are setting up a joint venture, Roboware LLP, to develop software for the oil and gas industry, introduce new IT and automate production processes. The new company is expected to increase substantially the share of Kazakhstani content in the digitalization of major oil and gas projects.
Industry business associations and government agencies estimate that the three largest field operators alone — KPO, NCOC and TCO (Tengizchevroil) — spend more than USD 200 million a year on IT and digitalization. Yet the lion's share of these IT services still goes to foreign contractors.
To achieve this goal, Roboware will shortly open a training center for IT professionals at one of Atyrau's regional universities. It forms part of the national program to train one hundred thousand IT specialists by 2025. The developers the center graduates will gain knowledge and practical skills in the most advanced methodologies and frameworks — Agile, Scrum, SAFe, TDD, OpenUP, DSDM and others. The joint efforts of AtyrauHub and Prime Source will thus create a regional competence center in Western Kazakhstan with ambitions to export IT expertise abroad.
About the participants.
AtyrauHub's mission is to build an IT ecosystem for Kazakhstan's oil and gas industry. The organization is based in Atyrau, the country's oil capital.
Prime Source is a leading Kazakhstani provider of proprietary software development services, with group turnover of more than USD 25 million a year. The company is among the ten largest IT companies by total tax contributions, maintains offices abroad and is actively exporting IT services to both neighboring and more distant markets. Prime Source director Evgeny Scherbinin regards Western Kazakhstan as a strategic priority for the company, since the oil and gas industry is one of the biggest consumers of IT.
Prime Source's partner in the project is Redfish Digital LLP.