Total expects stable output in 2011

Total expects stable output in 2011

Total maintains 2 pct annual output growth in 2010-14.

September 15, 2010 11:02 by Reuters

French oil major said on Wednesday its oil and gas output would be stable in 2011, but kept its target of 2 percent average annual growth between 2010 and 2014.

The world’s fourth-largest listed oil group by market value added output would grow in the second half of this year compared with the same period in 2009, but did not say by how much.

Total said output grew by 6.3 percent in the first half of 2010 compared with the same period in 2009, driven by ramp-ups from new projects in Yemen and Qatar.

Total said in its 2010 mid-year outlook posted on its website that production in 2011 would remain stable, though this would depend on the price of oil, Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’ (OPEC) production cuts, and oil production recovery in Nigeria.

“The market is concerned that strong year-on-year volume growth in the first half was the last hurrah with no new start-ups until 2012,” Credit Suisse said in an analyst note before the release of the presentation.

“Beyond this, we believe Total needs to address its long-term production outlook in light of delays to final investment decisions,” it said.

The group, which has no project coming online in 2011, has 10 projects starting up in 2012, including Pazflor in Angola, Halfaya in Iraq and Kashagan in Kazakhstan.

The group repeated oil demand would grow by more than 1 percent per year on average by 2020 and that natural output was declining by 6 percent per year on average.

Total, which is in the process of refocusing its strategy on oil and gas production, said it would increase the capital it spends on upstream from 46 percent to 75 percent by 2015. In the gas sector, Total said the market was tightening progressively and that Europe and Asia would be increasingly dependent on liquefied natural gas (LNG), with 25 billion cubic feet per day needed by 2020.

(Reporting by Muriel Boselli, Nina Sovich and Matthias Blamont; Editing by Sharon Lindores)