By 2009, output is expected to climb to 78 million metric tons, meaning annual growth will accelerate to 11 percent, the government forecast in an economic report published today by state-run Kazakhstanskaya Pravda.
The country's $80 billion economy has grown at an average pace of 10 percent a year since 2000 amid high oil and natural- gas prices. The former Soviet republic has 3.3 percent of the world's proven oil reserves and about 2 percent for natural gas.
Output of crude oil and gas condensate is expected to remain at about 65 million metric tons (1.31 million barrels a day) this year, Amantai Suyesinov, deputy head of the Energy Ministry's oil department, said in January, without giving a reason for the forecast. The production surged about 5 percent to 64.9 million tons last year, beating the government's forecast, Suyesinov said.
The Caspian Sea state itself exported 57.1 million tons last year, the energy ministry said May 14.
Kazakhstan exported 24.4 million tons of oil via the Chevron-led Caspian Pipeline Consortium, which connects the western part of the country with the Russian port of Novorossiysk.
The Caspian Sea state also shipped 15.6 million tons through the pipeline between Kazakh Atyrau and Russian Samara and 2.2 million tons through the Atasu-Alashankou pipeline to China, the ministry said, without providing comparative figures.
