AI to Bring Kazakhstan's Energy Sector $51 Million Annually

Kazakhstan's Minister of Energy, Yerlan Akkenzhenov, estimated the economic impact of implementing artificial intelligence in the fuel and energy complex at approximately 23 billion tenge (around $51 million) annually. Almost the entire amount is provided by solutions for the oil and gas industry. According to him, digital technologies should shift the industry from reacting to problems to predicting and preventing them. The Ministry of Energy will implement 20 measures under the Digital Qazaqstan strategy by 2029 in three areas: digital twins, AI, and cyber-physical security. According to government calculations, this will reduce accidents at facilities by 25% and energy resource losses by up to 90%.

The AI project portfolio in the fuel and energy complex includes 45 positions, 34 of which are in the implementation stage. In the oil and gas industry, AI is expected to increase the accuracy of oil product turnover to 85%, and in the gas sector, consumption forecasting is expected to reach up to 86%. Another focus is industrial safety. The Ministry of Energy plans to approve a priority registry of AI solutions by the end of the year to spread successful projects across the entire industry.

The largest contribution comes from oil and gas: planning oil product turnover brings up to 22.5 billion tenge (around $50 million) annually. Gas consumption forecasting is expected to yield 300 million tenge (around $666,000), and solutions in the field of industrial safety another 370 million tenge (around $821,000). "The combined economic effect of the three solutions amounts to about 23 billion tenge annually," the minister emphasized. A pilot digital twin at the Embamunaigas field integrates data on the reservoir, wells, and infrastructure. When scaled, additional oil production could reach up to 2.9 million tons. Authorities also plan to track oil and oil products along the entire route from the well to the gas station. The Ministry of Energy's calculations are part of the country's overall AI strategy: Deputy Prime Minister Zhaslan Madiev presented the Digital Qazaqstan program until 2029, two supercomputers, and the Data Centers Valley with a capacity of up to 1 GW in the Ekibastuz area. The relationship is reciprocal: AI reduces losses in energy, and cheap electricity priced at $0.025 per kWh is needed by the data centers themselves. Deputy Minister Rostislav Konyashkin previously explained that personal data of citizens should be processed within the country. For the fuel and energy complex, this logic is also relevant: data on fields and the energy system relate to critical infrastructure, which the Ministry of Energy protects within the framework of cyber-physical security.