PERTH, April 23 (Reuters) - BHP Billiton Ltd/Plc (BHP.AX: Quote, Profile, Research) (BLT.L: Quote, Profile, Research) on Wednesday reported a 19 percent increase in third-quarter petroleum output from a year earlier, and said it was track to deliver 10 percent volume growth in 2008.
BHP, Australia's largest oil and gas producer, said total output of 32.73 million barrels of oil equivalent for the January-March quarter was also up 8 percent from the previous quarter.
The increase was due to higher production at the Stybarrow oil field off Western Australia and at the Genghis Khan and Atlantis fields in the United States, which came on line in the previous quarter.
"Production was higher than all comparative periods due to significant growth in high margin crude production," BHP said in its third-quarter production report.
It also said its 50,000 bpd Neptune field was expected to start production by the middle of the year.
Neptune was initially due to come online by the end of March. But structural problems at the hull of the platform have delayed the startup.
BHP owns a 35 percent stake in Neptune, which is expected to produce 50 million cubic feet per day of natural gas when it begins operations. Marathon Oil (MRO.N: Quote, Profile, Research) holds a 30 percent interest, Australia's Woodside Petroleum Ltd (WPL.AX: Quote, Profile, Research) owns 20 percent and Spain's Repsol-YPF (REP.MC: Quote, Profile, Research) holds the rest. BHP said its development projects, including the key Shenzi oil and gas field in the Gulf the Mexico and the Pyrenees field off Western Australia, were on schedule and on budget.
BHP said the $4.4 billion Shenzi field, expected to produce 100,000 barrels of oil and 50 million cubic feet of gas a day, was expected to come online in the middle of 2009.
The $1.6 billion Pyrenees field, which has a production capacity of 96,000 barrels of oil a day, is due to begin production in the first half of 2010, BHP said.
For more on BHP's production report, please click on [ID:nSYD38107]. (Reporting by Fayen Wong)
