Max Petroleum appraises Kazakhstan oil and gas fields LONDON, Oct. 9 (UPI) -- Max Petroleum, a company focused on Kazakhstan, said it started drilling new wells at its Sagiz West and Uytas fields in the country. Max said it reached a stable flow rate for oil at the SAGW-5 well in the Saqiz West field in Kazakhstan. It said an appraisal well in the field, the seventh for the southern portion of Sagiz West, is under way. Kazakhstan is one of the premier oil producers in the Caspian region. The company, however, gave no reserve estimate for the entire Sagiz West prospect. Max, based in London, said Tuesday it started drilling another appraisal well in the Uytas field, leaving four left in an initial appraisal program. It estimates the Uytas field contains 778 million barrels of oil. Kazakhstan hosts the Kashagan oil field, one of the largest in the world, with as much as 16 billion barrels of estimated commercial reserves. Sauat Mynbayev, chairman of state energy company KazMunaiGas, was quoted by the country's English-language website Tengrinews as saying Kazakhstan was eager to exploit its energy riches. "A very limited number of countries will be able to actively increase production of oil and gas," he said. Kazakhstan intends to enhance its positions at the energy market to meet the forecasted growth of demand.