Turkey-Kazak oil firm looks to boost production

Joint-venture oil producer Kazakhturkmunai aims to increase its oil production by 10 percent this year, its vice-general manager Murat Yilmaz has said.Yilmaz said on Thursday that KTM, which was founded 20 years ago, had various search, production and development projects in four regions in western Kazakhstan and had produced 240 thousand tons of petroleum in the past past year.KTM has so far drilled more than 120 oil wells in search and production operations, he said, adding that oil produced by the company is transferred through pipelines belonging to the Kazakh company, KazTransOil.Kazakhturkmunai, a joint venture company between Turkish Petroleum Corporation (49 percent) and KazMunaiGas (51 percent), was the first joint petroleum company to be registered in Kazakhstan since it gained independence.It has supported various social projects in the region such as schools, theatres, cultural centers and mosques, since it discovered its first commercial oil in 1996.Turkey's sole national oil company, TPAO, has in recent years undertaken a number of oil and natural gas exploration projects as part of its mission to develop domestic and international resources and meet increasing demands in the country.