Kazakhs seek new oil and gas export routes to Europe

New Delhi, May 29 : Kazakhstan will seek new routes to Europe for its oil and gas exports as Central Asia's biggest energy producer raises shipments.

This was stated by Kazakhstan's Deputy Energy Minister Lyazzat Kiinov at a recent conference in Kiev, Ukraine.

Kazakhstan has a huge export capacity and we are studying all possible ways to increase shipments'', Kazinform News Agency quoted Kiinov, as saying.

The country, which enjoys annual economic growth of about 10 percent since 2000, will seek to produce as much as 130 million metric tons of oil in 2015, Kiinov said. The holder of 3.3 percent of global oil reserves pumped 66.1 million tons in 2006, according to BP Plc.

The Caspian Sea state is seeking new routes for its oil pipelines and increase refining capacity through purchases abroad. State-run KazMunaiGaz National Co. bought 75 percent of Romania's Rompetrol Group NV in August after acquiring processing facilities at a Georgian port on the Black Sea the previous year. he state's strategy is to export oil-based fuels, such as gasoline, and not simply crude, Kiinov said.

"At the moment, one of the major tasks is stable supplies of crude to our oil refinery in Romania and oil-based products from the refinery to the rest of Europe,'' Kiinov said.

Projects to export two million tons of liquefied natural gas by the end of 2015 are also under consideration, Kiinov said, without elaborating. The country has reserves of as much as 8 trillion cubic meters of gas, the deputy minister said.

Kazakhstan is the former Soviet Union's largest energy producer after Russia.

ANI