French oil major Total SA (TOT) Monday said it has started production from its Akpo deep water natural gas and condensate development in Nigeria, in which it has a 24% stake, ahead of the planned start-up date.

Total said it expects to bring production to 175,000 barrels a day of condensate and 320 million standard cubic feet a day of gas by the summer of 2009. Akpo had been slated to start producing hydrocarbons in April, a Total spokeswoman said.

Total is the operator of the OML 130 block, which contains Akpo.

Its partners on the block are China's third-largest oil producer by capacity, CNOOC Ltd. (CEO), Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, South Atlantic Petroleum, and Brazil's Petroleo Brasileiro SA (PBR), or Petrobras.

CNOOC said Monday that the Akpo startup boosts its chances of hitting annual output targets in spite of the low oil prices.

CNOOC expects its 2009 crude oil and natural gas production to rise 16%-18% from last year. CNOOC is targeting production of 225 million-231 million barrels of oil equivalent this year, up from 194 million-196 million in 2008, the company said in a statement Jan. 20.

Akpo's proved and probable reserves are estimated at 620 millions barrels of condensate and more than 1 tera cubic feet of gas, Total said.

The field, discovered in the year 2000, is located 200 kilometers from the Nigerian coastline in water depth ranging from 1,200 to 1,400 meters.

   -By Adam Mitchell, Dow Jones Newswires; +33 1 4017 1756; adam.mitchell@dowjones.com

(David Winning in Beijing contributed to this report.)