Kazakhstan to up oil output

ASTANA, Kazakhstan, Feb. 7 (UPI) -- Kazakhstan said it will increase its oil output by 3.7 percent during 2008, the Middle East North Africa Financial Network reported.

The country expects to produce between 69 million and 70 million tons of oil this year, the country's Energy Minister Sauat Mynbayev was quoted as saying. It produced 67.5 million tons of oil and gas condensate in 2007, the State Statistics Agency said.

Kazakhstan aims to double oil output by 2015 as it boosts production at fields run by international companies such as Chevron Corp. and Eni SpA.

The nation has 3.3 percent of the world's proven oil reserves and 1.7 percent of its gas, according to BP's Statistical Review of World Energy.