PERTH, Nov 8: BHP Billiton Ltd on Friday predicted it would boost its petroleum production by 38 per cent over the next five years as it brings new projects on-stream from Mexico to Pakistan.

Philip Aiken, president of BHP Billiton, said output was expected to rise from around 130 million barrels of oil equivalent (MMboe) a year currently to around 180 MMboe by 2007.

“This is the best estimate we have at the moment of what is going to happen over the next four or five years,” he said.

“We are in the middle of a couple of years of flat or slightly lower production,” he said, pointing to the natural decline in production from fields in the Bass Strait off southern Australia and Laminaria in the Timor Sea.

“From 2004 you will start to see... a considerable ramp up in our production as Rod and Ohanet are in full stream and we bring on Zamzama and Minerva and obviously when Mad Dog and Atlantis kick in.”—AFP