The Company

Darby Energy, Inc. is an independent oil and gas exploration firm. Through wholly owned subsidiaries, Darby Energy is engaged in exploration for hydrocarbons in South Kazakhstan’s ARIS Region. Its projects and territory were originally licensed in 2004.

Darby Energy plans to prospect and produce in the ARIS region of South Kazakhstan under a concession granted by the Ministry of Power and Minerals of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The ARIS territories cover approximately 22,000 square kilometers in South Kazakhstan’s Kizilordinskoy Regions.

South Kazakhstan

Geology

Initial geological studies have shown the potential of locating extraordinary amounts of recoverable oil and gas. The studies and initial exploratory drilling have proven the existence of substantial salt structures within the ARIS territories. Limited seismic testing has already identified numerous bright spots in association with salt structures.

The Company intends to undertake further geological testing, conduct exploratory drilling and secure joint venture partners among major oil and gas players already in the region.

South Kazakhstan

The South Kazakhstan region contains about 2 million people. Natural gas is currently delivered to the region from Uzbekistan, with the local supply being subject to shortages. The infrastructure to deliver natural gas locally is in place and the demand for locally produced gas appears to be robust. The areas that are expected to produce oil also have asphalt roads. Additionally, railway stations, pipelines and refineries are located a relatively short distance from the ARIS Concession.

According to geologist Dan Seamount, former Alaska Oil & Gas Commissioner, the potential in the Darby Energy projects is in the billions of barrels of oil equivalent to the in subsalt reservoirs greater than 15000 100mmboe to 1000mmboe in shallower salt anticlines.

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OUR LEADERSHIP

Meet our visionary Board of Directors, a collective of industry pioneers dedicated to steering our company’s course with expertise, innovation, and unwavering commitment to excellence.

Asilkhan Burbayev
General Director

Asilkhan Burbayev was Deputy Chief of the Department Transportation of the Kazakhstan Agricultural Institute.  Prior to that, since 1994 he served as Chief of the State Committee of the Republic of Kazakhstan on Antimonopoly Policy. He also served as Chief specialist, head of department, chief expert of the Department for work with non-state legal entities with state participation of the State Property and Privatization Committee of the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Kazakhstan from 1997-2017.

Mr. Burbayev is graduate of the Kostrom Agricultural Institute where he became mechanical engineer in 1995. He is also graduate of the Ky State National University in 1998 with a graduate degree in law.

Arman Muratovich Rakhimzhanov
Director & COO

Arman Rakhimzhanov is the Director General of the company and of the Subsidiary Enerpetroleum from 2012, and advisor to director general from February 2004. Mr. Rakhimzhanov has served in numerous executive roles in the infrastructure, security and oil and gas space for over 30 years. He was Director and Vice President of Taza Zher Kazakhstan. In 2000 Mr. Rakhimzhanov served as Vice President of Fev Service Company, Almaty. 

He was Head of Internal Security in 1997 through 2004 for the Center for Scientific and Technical Stock Exchange Information in Kazakhstan. From 1992 to 1996, he served in the Kazakhstan Military. Mr. Rakhimzhanov is a graduate in industrial engineering and is also a graduate of the Kazakhstan Military Academy and Controls and has served in the Kazakhstan intelligence services post-graduation.

Aslan Sahrikbayev
Director and Vice President

Aslan Sahrikbayev serves director and vice president of the company. He served as head industrial engineer for drilling oil and gas exploration expedition of the Kazneftegazrazvedkae department in the beginning of his career. Subsequently, he was chair of laboratories for drilling technology, at the Scientific Research Geological Exploration Oil Institute. He was Vice Chief Department for the Development of Technological Progress and Deep Drilling in Kazakhstan from 1993 through 1996. He was also Director of Oil and Gas of the Ministry of Energy and Fuel Resources of the Republic of Kazakhstan from 1993 through 1995. Deputy Minister of Energy and Fuel Resources of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Then, in 1997, Mr. Sahrikbayev served as Deputy Minister of the Oil and Gas Industry of the Republic of Kazakhstan. From 2016 to 2021, he served as Deputy Chairman of the KAZENERGY Association. He is a Ph.D. graduate of the Moscow Institute of Oil and Gas.

Zhandarti Narutaie
General Counsel

Zhandarti Narutaie serves as general counsel for the company and coordinates its compliance, tax, and licensing matters. From 2004 through 2006 he served as assistant attorney for VK Collegium of Advocates, Ust Kamenogorsk. From 2006-2008, he served as staff attorney for Ulba Flour Complex and for Kaz Atom Prom. He was professor at the University of Wroclaw on International Law and European Council Law from 2007 through 2011. Prior to that he served as Chair of the Department of International Law, KAZ Un, Astana 

 

He graduated with highest honors from the Kazakhstan State University named He received his doctorate in law from the Wroclaw University.

DAN SEAMOUNT Jr. Professional Biography
Dan Seamount
Chief Geologist

COMMISSIONER DAN SEAMOUNT PETROLEUM GEOLOGY

Commissioner Daniel “Dan” T. Seamount, Jr. is the longest-serving commissioner in the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission history. He was first appointed to the Geologist seat in 2000 and was reappointed to full six-year terms in 2005, 2011, and 2017. He also served as the Chair from 2008 to 2012. As the Commissioner, he worked on many Alaskan energy issues including regulation of all 50+ Alaska oil and gas fields, North Slope natural gas, Cook Inlet Energy supply challenges, hydraulic fracturing, statute and regulation modifications, investigations of many major incidents, and the advances of energy sources such as coal bed methane, geothermal, and underground coal gasification, and much more. Before his appointment, Commissioner Seamount served as a Senior Geologist for Unocal; and prior to that, he worked as geologist for Marathon Oil Company and Chevron U.S.A., and the University of California.

His 28 years of experience in the oil and gas industry involved oil, gas, and geothermal exploration and development in California, the Rocky Mountains, the mid-continent, and Alaska. He currently serves as consulting geologist on a number of very prospective petroleum exploration plays in southern Kazakhstan and Texas. The Kazakhstan project is ongoing. Commissioner Seamount considers it to be the most promising project of his career. 

It includes a very large concession in the Syr-Darya Basin near Kazakhstan’s southern border. The Arys concession (Contract 753) covers 22,000 square kilometers. Geological and geophysical analyses so far indicate potential exceeding three billion oil equivalent barrels in shallow East Texas style salt anticlines and deep underlying Tengiz Oil Field type accumulations in the deep sub-salt reservoirs. Commissioner Seamount holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Geology from the University of California. He resides in Eagle River and thrives on outdoor activities that Alaska provides.

Berikh Nuralbayev
Geologist, Director

Berikh Nuralbayev began his career as an engineer 30 years ago. He then served as a head of a department, a director of the Kumkol, of the production association Yuzhneftegaz.

Since 1997 he worked as a director and geologist of Yagast Petroleum. From 1999 to 2001 he worked as a head of a department, a deputy head of the Central Energy Customs, a Head of the Central Energy Customs of the Customs Committee of the Ministry of State Revenues of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Since 2000 he worked as a director of the RSE (Republican State Enterprise) «Central Dispatching Board of Oil and Gas of Kazakhstan» of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources of Kazakhstan. Since 2002 he worked in oil and gas companies holding various senior positions. Since March 2012 he worked as a head of the Republican Center of Geological Information «Kazgeoinform» of the Committee of Geology and Subsoil Use of the Ministry of Industry and New Technologies of Kazakhstan.

In 2015, he was appointed as a Chairman of the Committee of Geology and Subsoil Use of the Ministry of Investment and Development of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Since 2019, he was appointed as chief geologist and advisor to Subsoil Use Development Committee and has been advisor to multiple major oil and gas joint ventures in South Kazakhstan. Mr. Nuralbayev holds degree of Doctor of Technical Sciences of the National Engineering Academy of Kazakhstan.