Oksana Sharovarnikova: about the profession they love, educating young people and the Chevron competition

     Being part of a close-knit team, being satisfied with the results of your work and earning a decent salary are the main attributes of choosing the right profession and workplace. This is the opinion of Oksana Viktorovna Sharovarnikova, senior engineer of the Oil, Gas and Water Research Laboratory at KMG Engineering’s Atyrau branch.

“We work together as a team. There is a very strong mentoring spirit in the team. We always try to help young specialists discover their field of work. Among the young colleagues, I would like to mention Serikbolsyn Nabidollayev, who transferred to us from a branch of KazNIPImunaigas. Serikbolsyn is now successfully testing and can offer any help that is required of him. Other young specialists, Nurymbek Mugayupov and Kuanysh Gemranov, are also successfully mastering analysis and sampling. We always work with young people on the basis that there are inevitably mistakes at the beginning of the journey, which one learns from and overcomes difficulties. This is why a mentor is always needed at the beginning of the journey. Only afterwards do people become sure of their actions and the profession becomes more exciting. It takes time for the acquired skills to transform into skills and the long-awaited experience to come,” says Oksana Viktorovna.

 She believes that the value of a lab technician’s work is in obtaining the most reliable data possible during oil, gas and water research. After all, the data obtained are not just numbers, but the result of the work of a large number of people.

“The waters of our region are mostly medium and strong. That is why it is preferable to analyze them manually. The degree of dilution is lower than when analyzing on a machine. The result is more reliable. But this is, of course, my opinion. As for oil analysis, the research is automated and digitised. The high quality of our research is confirmed by the results of the international Chevron competition at the end of 2020, where our laboratory participated. The tests involved similar laboratories in the USA, UK, Australia, Norway, Angola, Indonesia, Thailand and Bangladesh. The results show that we ranked in the top three with a 94.7% correctness score out of 100%. It shows the hard work of our entire team. We think participation in proficiency testing programs is a great way for a laboratory to ensure that all aspects of its measurement system are reliable, and, most importantly, it provides the opportunity for continuous improvement,” said O. Sharovarnikova.

    Oksana has been part of the institute’s team for 16 years. Her husband and daughter have been supporting her in her difficult career choice. In her spare time our colleague enjoys caring for her garden and helping to bring up her granddaughter.

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