ASTANA, Dec 9: Kazakhstan is planning to invest $51 billion in developing its oil sector by 2015, the country’s top energy official said on Monday.

Energy Minister Vladimir Shkolnik also said his country wants to increase annual oil output to 150 million tons by 2015.

“In 2015 we are going to reach the level of 150 million tons of oil, or three million barrels per day,” he said. Kazakhstan hopes to match Saudi Arabia by producing eight million barrels of oil per day by 2020.

Last year Kazakhstan produced 40 million tons of oil, and expects to produce 47 million tons by the end of this year, Shkolnik said.

Kazakhstan’s Caspian sea oil field, the Kashagan, is estimated to hold seven to nine billion barrels of recoverable reserves, and is thought to be one of the largest oil discoveries in the world in the last 30 years. The production of oil at the Kashagan field is expected to begin in 2005.

Kazakhstan is already home to a massive Tenghiz oil field, which contains from six to nine billion barrels of oil.—AFP