PetroChina, te largest oil producer in the Mainland, plans to spend 2.74 billion US dollars to acquire a 67 percent stake in various oilfield assets in Kazakhstan, throug a joint venture with its parent comapny, with the aim to further boost output, overseas oil reserve and profitability, The Standard reported. PetroChina’s net profit climbed to 80.68 billion yuan (10.1 billion US dollars) in the first half of 2006. "In a bid to meet energy demand from the domestic economic growth, we spared no efforts in production in the first half of 2006 and improved our competitiveness and market supply capacity," said the paper, quoted vice chairman Jiang Jiemin as saying. "At the same time, we duly increased our investment in crude oil and natural gas exploration and development to respond to the high oil prices." "We estimate the acquisition can boost our output by 5 percent for the next few years and increase earnings per share by 2.4 percent," Jiang said in Hong Kong. "Overseas expansion is one of our key strategies and we continue to seek new investment opportunities actively."