Azernews.Az

KazMunaiGas Exploration Production, the arm of Kazakh state oil and gas company KazMunaiGas, plans to increase capital expenditure in 2013, the company reported on Thursday following the Board of Directors' meeting, according to Trend news agency.

"Capital expenditure for 2013 is expected to be 191 billion tenge ($1.288 billion). The increase in capital expenditure is related to investment in the modernization and exploration programs," the company said.

During the meeting KMG EP's Board of Directors approved the budget for 2013. This budget assumes average Brent oil price for the year of $90 per barrel, in accordance with the official forecasts of the Kazakh government and KazMunaiGas.

The planned production in 2013 is expected to be around 5.3 million tons (107,000 barrels of oil per day) and around 2.8 million tons (57,000 barrels of oil per day) from KMG EP's subsidiaries UzenMunaiGas and EmbaMunaiGas respectively. Thus, total production volume in 2013 is expected to be around 8.2 million tons (164,000 barrels of oil per day).

KMG EP is among the top three Kazakh oil and gas producers. The overall production in 2011 was 12.3 million tons of crude oil, including the company's share in Kazgermunai, CCEL and PetroKazakhstan Inc. The total volume of proved and probable reserves, as of late 2011 was 226 million tons (1.7 billion barrels).