French oil
major Total SA Monday raised its outlook for annual production growth to 2.5%
from 2% and said project start-ups during this stretch should produce around
600,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day by 2015, according to slides to be
presented later in the day at an analyst conference here.
Total said in its annual investor presentation last September that it
would increase oil and gas output 2% annually between 2009 and 2014.
The company said production in the next four years would be boosted by new
projects coming onstream, such as the Usan deepwater field offshore Nigeria and
the Pazflor heavy oil field in Angola.
The company has followed an aggressive acquisition strategy in the past 18
months, spending $10 billion as it seeks to expand its acreage portfolio beyond
its traditional remit of Africa and the Middle East. Major new upstream
projects are underway following recent transactions in Russia,
Uganda and Canada.
And while Total said it predicts strong natural gas demand, expecting it to
become the world's second-largest energy source by 2030, 60% of its new
projects will be in liquids like oil, heavy oil and LNG and 40% in gas alone.