Azernews.Az

(Dow Jones Newswires, September 26) – Total 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 in London.

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.