Total forecasts increase in oil production

Total, the French oil company, was the only major to increase production in 2007 and yesterday pledged that new developments would deliver a significant in-crease this year.

Christophe de Margerie, the chief executive, said the group had increased production by 1.5 per cent to 2.39m barrels of oil equivalent a day last year.
Although this is below the group’s original 2007 estimates of a 7 per cent in-crease, Mr de Margerie said Total would still increase production 4 per cent annually between 2006 and 2010. This would be achieved despite the “lightning” rise in oil prices which had held back output allowed under production-sharing agreements. By the end of 2010, he said, Total aimed to have put into development close to 5bn boe/d in resources.

Net adjusted profit edged back 3 per cent to €12.2bn ($17.8bn).

Despite the better production performance, the results show Total faced similar challenges to its peers, particularly pressure on access to oil and gas reserves from countries such as Venezuela and Russia.

Mr de Margerie said high oil prices had made this more difficult, with producing countries keen to guard reserves for the future. The challenge, he said, was to persuade these governments “to bring more energy to western countries without feeling they are harming their own interests”.

Financial Times