May 5 (Bloomberg) -- Kazakhstan, the largest oil producer in the former Soviet Union after Russia, increased crude production by an annual 6.3 percent in the first four months of the year, the government said.

Output reached 23.6 million metric tons of crude and gas condensate by the end of April, Energy Minister Sauat Mynbayev told officials in Astana today, according to a statement posted on the government Web site.

The Central Asian country's three refineries processed 4.13 million tons in the period, an increase of 5.4 percent from a year earlier, Mynbayev said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Nariman Gizitdinov in Almaty, through the Moscow newsroom at ngizitdinov@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: May 5, 2008 03:34 EDT