Asset Economist

COUNTRY DESCRIPTION:

Kazakhstan is an important country with strategic significance in Shell's portfolio.  Shell has material interest in Kashagan, Karachaganak and the Caspian Pipeline Consortium.  In addition, Shell is currently maturing opportunities in exploration. The commercial department of Shell Kazakhstan Development will manage all asset commercial, growth and portfolio issues relating to these assets and in collaboration with the shareholder representatives and Kazakhstan Senior VP, to ensure value for Shell is maximized.

DIMENSIONS:

The Asset Economist role is part Kazakhstan Commercial Team in Astana with responsibility for several regional assets and growth (new business/exploration) projects.

• The Asset Economist will support projects as a core member of multi-disciplinary opportunity teams or natural teams focusing on integrating economics assumptions, developing valuation models and delivering value insights
• Substantial liaison with engineers, subsurface specialists, strategy, planning, legal, tax, finance and commercial staff – a unique position to contribute to the evaluation and decision-making processes in the businesses

 KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES:

• Lead economics evaluations for specific assets, projects or investment opportunities, including modelling the economics of investments
• Determine the value of assets, opportunities and businesses as required as part of the opportunity realization, asset management and business planning processes
• Build and maintain models from scratch and improve existing models from where necessary.
• Frame the economics requirements and appropriate decision analysis, fundamentals and optimize based on fiscal systems, risk & uncertainty, quantification of non-technical risks, model building, economics assurance, and communicate value insights to help achieve high quality value propositions
• Calculate economic cut-off for reserves and formally report expectation reserves in conjunction with the reserves co-ordinator
• Use appropriate tools and methodologies for investment evaluation, and uncertainty and risk analysis
• Work with development/commercial team to optimize the development of opportunities
• Champion Decision Analysis and Decision Quality in Shell Kazakhstan.
• Contribute to continuous improvement of Shell Kazakhstan Business processes and tools; ensuring proper documentation and reporting of activities; ensure adherence to established internal controls / mandates
• Coach staff across the business on economics principles, valuation and screening.
• Communicate, apply and refine economics guidelines and standards.

QUALIFICATION REQUIREMENTS:
The position of Asset Economist is assigned to a person who can report of the following:

• University degree
• 5+ years relevant experience in economics and finance
• Familiar with Kazakhstan energy industry challenges
• Commercial professional with good understanding of the Upstream business (preferably technical and commercial mix)
• Prior upstream economics experience is advantageous, preferably gained through an Asset Economist role with exposure to reserves booking and business planning economics
• Experience of at least one fiscal regime e.g. Tax/Royalty, Production Sharing Contracts, etc.
• The Asset Economist is expected to be strong analytically as well as demonstrating technical, economics, commercial, financial understanding, a proficient verbal, visual and written communicator
• It is expected that applicants have significant experience with Excel based best practice modelling and can build new models from scratch as well as improve existing models.
• A dedication to look for and quantify upsides, downsides and the "unquantifiable"
• Ability to recognize links between wide-ranging issues with the skill to develop overviews and propose solutions under changing circumstances
• Strong HSSE focus and demonstrated track record of managing HSSE issues.
• Results oriented with commercial focus, risk aware and dedicated to seeking improvements in business performance.