Kazakhstan, Astana, May 31 / Trend A.Maratov /
The Middle East, Eurasia and Africa are of particular interest to the Kazakh Company KazMunaiGas Exploration Production (KMG EP), the company's CEO Askar Balzhanov told journalists.
"We consider Eurasia, the Middle East and Africa in terms of purchasing new assets," Balzhanov said.
"The search for new blocks for exploration and new oil-producing assets is an ongoing process that we began in 2006, first in Kazakhstan. It was necessary to consolidate the assets here, and starting in 2007-2008 we have been conducting adjacent worldwide searches," he said.
He stressed that the Kazakh KMG, jointly with BG, participated in the tender to purchase new assets in Egypt, but failed to win.
"We studied the assets in Norway, but refused due to lower value. Then we studied this issue in North Africa and Spain. We talked with the Chinese side about the work on their territory," Balzhanov said.
KMG EP also works to buy assets in Russia, in neighboring Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan.
KMG EP is among the top three Kazakh oil and gas producers. The overall production in 2010 was 13.3mln tons (an average of 270kbopd) of crude oil, including the Company's share in Kazgermunai, CCEL, PKI and NBK. The total volume of proved and probable reserves was 232 million tons (1.7bn bbl), as it was at the end of 2010, including shares in the associates (about 2.2 bln barrels).
The Company's shares are listed on the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange and the GDRs are listed on The London Stock Exchange. The Company raised more than US $2billion in its IPO in September 2006. The International rating agency Standard & Poor's (S&P) confirmed KMG EP's "BB+" corporate credit rating in July 2010 and "GAMMA-6" rating in November 2010.