Project management as a tool to implement the strategy, the realities and prospects of oil and gas enterprises in the Republic of Kazakhstan

Project leadership is an important part of organizations’ activities. Project management makes it possible to solve some business tasks more effectively than the means of traditional and operational management. Projects hold a key role in the implementation of the organization’s strategy. Using the project leadership approach yielded uniting the functional units of the organization in a whole single team to achieve the goals and indicators of the strategy. Employing of project management in commercial and government organizations gets common in the CIS countries, including Republic of Kazakhstan. It is revealed that the implementation of a strategic management system will make it possible to minimize the consequences of the economic crisis for the oil and gas producing companies of Kazakhstan. A specific feature of Kazakhstan’s oil and gas industry lays in management system based on a functional approach, insufficient level of strategic management system and project management implementation. It is established that there are significant prospects for the development of project management in the oil and gas industry of Kazakhstan. Adoption and optimization of project leadership at the enterprises of the oil and gas industry in Kazakhstan will lead to the appropriate implementation of a strategic management system. In this regard, following measures are suggested to implement by enterprises: development of unified industry standards for project leadership; design of a training system for managers and employees; implementation of the process approach in the company’s management system; design and implementation of a Project Management Office (PMO) in the company; development of a fair and progressive employees incentive program based on key performance indicators (KPI); implementation of specialized software for project management. The fulfillment of the above suggestions will significantly improve efficiency of the project management system’s implementation. The project leadership system will significantly reduce the implementation time and improve the profitability of projects, as well as secure the accomplishment of strategic management projects and activities.