LUKoil president may bring greater foreign investment in Kazakhstan

LUKoil President Vagit Alekperov has been included in Kazakhstan's Council on Foreign Investment by Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev. This was announced today by the Russian company's press office.

LUKoil has invested about USD 1.5 billion in the economy of Kazakhstan over the last 8 years. As a press spokesman said 'LUKoil's participation in the work of the council gives us even greater reason to believe that the company will become more active in Kazakhstan.'

The Council on Foreign Investment is a non-governmental consultative body which is headed by the president himself. The main purpose of the council is to increase the level of foreign investment in Kazakhstan and create better conditions for foreign companies to invest. The council includes representatives of ChevronTexaco, BG Group, Total, EBRD and several other companies and banks.

LUKoil is Russia's leading oil company. Its chief activities are the exploration for and the extraction of oil and gas and the production and sale of petroleum products. Principal stockholders include Гарант, ING Bank, NIKOIL, Depository Clearing Company, Brunswick UBS Warburg, AMPO Bank, National Depository Center, ING Bank (Eurasia), company management and other persons. In 2002, LUKoil increased oil extraction by 1.9% to 79.8 million tonnes, but its gas production fell by 1.9% to 5.1 billion cubic metres. This year the company intends to extract at least 80 tonnes of oil and produce up to 5.7 billion cubic metres of gas.

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