INTERVIEW-EBRD says dialogue key to sharing Kazakh oil riches

By Olzhas Auyezov

ATYRAU, Kazakhstan, June 5 (Reuters) - Kazakhstan and Western firms tapping its oil riches need to find ways of sharing windfall revenues generated by soaring oil prices, the head of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development said.

Central Asia's biggest oil producer has alarmed foreign investors over past months by threatening to impose sanctions on a Western consortium developing the huge Kashagan field.

Kazakhstan has also introduced an unpopular oil export duty and announced plans to increase taxes in the energy sector.

EBRD head Jean Lemierre told Reuters in the Kazakh oil city of Atyrau he believed there was no reason for investors to worry.

"This is a normal process," he said in an interview. "In a country which is rich with resources there is always an important discussion about how to share the upside."

Lemierre, who steps down as EBRD president next month, was in Kazakhstan to attend the Foreign Investors Council, a dialogue body set up by President Nursultan Nazarbayev to discuss government policies with foreign companies.

Global oil majors have invested billions of dollars into Kazakhstan's oil and gas sector, helping the ex-Soviet state to more than double crude output since it gained independence.

Kazakhstan hopes to attract even more money to double that figure again to about 150 million tonnes a year within the next decade and become one of the world's top 10 oil producers.