LONDON: French oil group Total outlined huge asset sales and a production increase on Monday and said it would get gas flowing again at the North Sea's stricken Elgin field by the end of the year.
Total said that it intended to raise $15-20 billion through sales by the end of 2014 and boost output after expected flat output this year.
The group plans to dispose of some exploration and production activities and some refining and chemical interests to raise $15-20 billion (11.5-15.4 billion euros) from 2012 to 2014, finance director Patrick de la Chevardiere told a London press conference alongside a presentation to investors.
Total also said it intended to raise oil and gas production by three percent a year on average from 2011 to 2015. Its previous target was for a 2.5 percent rise in production from 2010 to 2015.
The increase is to come entirely from projects already in production or being developed.
Meanwhile, Total is also aiming for 650 million euros in savings through increased productivity and synergies in a restructuring programme it unveiled last year in its refining and chemical activities.
Total announced separately in Paris that it had acquired a 40-percent stake in a contract concerning oil fields off the coast of Mozambique, for an undisclosed amount paid to the Malaysian oil group Petronas.
Drilling of an exploration well was expected to take place there by the end of the year, a statement said.
Investors were cheered by the announcements and Total shares showed a gain of 0.98 percent to 40.62 euros in late trading on the Paris stock exchange, where the CAC 40 index of French blue-chips was 0.98 percent lower overall.
The group's new production schedule follows a series of incidents which has curbed output this year, particularly a leak which disrupted gas production from the Elgin field in the North Sea since the end of March.
Total said it hoped that production from Elgin would be resumed by the end of the year.
"We are working towards a gradual restart of the production prior the end of year, but at the end of the day, it's up to the UK authorities to decide," Chevardiere said.
Total described the Elgin incident as the biggest in the North Sea for at least 10 years and put the cost of the leak at $300-400 million (230-310 million euros).
The group has also suffered from a leak at a well in Nigeria and repeated sabotage of a gas pipeline it operates in Yemen.
Total set a target of raising production to 3.0 million barrels per day by 2017 and said that 70 percent of the projects needed to achieve this were already producing and were being developed.
Commenting on relations with Iraq, de la Chevardiere said "it would not be too serious" if Baghdad told Total to shut down operations in the south of the country because conditions for working there were not very attractive.
The Iraqi government has taken issue with a Total decision to search for oil in autonomous regions of Iraqi Kurdistan in the north.
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