Kazakh leader calls for more resource exploration

ASTANA, Feb 6 (Reuters) - Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev urged his government on Wednesday to step up exploration of new natural resource deposits in his oil-rich Central Asian state.

Kazakhstan, roughly the size of Western Europe, is home to some of the world's biggest energy and metals deposits and has drawn billions of dollars of foreign investment since its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

Addressing parliament in his annual state of the nation speech, Nazarbayev said it was time to intensify exploration of the nation's riches.

"Together with the government we have to finally solve the question of exploration of new deposits, and Kazakhstan has many of them," he said in his opening remarks shown on television.

"We have not done enough to explore our country's vast territory."

Kazakhstan's biggest oilfields such as Kashagan, Tengiz and Karachaganak, are being developed by Western oil majors including Italy's Eni (ENI.MI), Exxon Mobil (XOM.N), and Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L).

The deposits lie at the heart of Kazakhstan's ambitious growth plans but the nation needs to tap additional sources of energy and explore new exports routes as it seeks to become a major crude supplier over the next decade.

National oil and gas company KazMunaiGas [KMG.UL] by Kazakh law has the right to buy any oil assets before they are offered on the market.

Kazakhstan has the world's eight-largest proven reserves of oil, 75 years of gas reserves and ranks fourth in world production of copper, manganese and zinc. (Writing by Maria Golovnina; editing by Kim Coghill)