Rosneft aims for 20 pct production increase by 2020

MOSCOW, July 11 (Reuters) - Russia's biggest oil producer Rosneft plans to boost hydrocarbon production by almost a fifth to 300 million tonnes of oil equivalent by 2020 by speeding up the development of upstream projects and improving the quality of drilling, it said late on Friday.

This represents an almost 20 percent increase compared with the 63.2 million tonnes, or 5.2 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, produced in the first quarter.

It is also a substantial increase on the state-controlled company's previous goals. In its previous plans, outlined in 2013, the world's largest listed oil producer projected that its oil output would be almost flat through to 2017 with acceleration to growth of between 3 and 4 percent a year thereafter.

The newly published plans, announced at a company meeting presided over by its boss Igor Sechin in western Siberia, include both oil and gas production.

Rosneft said its emphasis on the development of key production assets reflected the macroeconomic situation, current risks and the tax regime.

Russia, one of the world's major oil producers, plans to boost crude oil exports and cut overall output of refined products. The country cut oil and oil product exporting duty starting from Jan. 1 2015, but increased the mineral extraction tax. (Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin. Editing by Jane Merriman)