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ublicly listed Medco Energi International says it expects its production to hit 100,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) by 2019, with several ongoing projects to conclude in the coming years.

The figure is 60 percent higher than the producer'€™s current oil and gas production level.

'€œWe expect our production to start peaking in 2015, when the Senoro project [in Central Sulawesi] is completed and ready for full production,'€ Medco president director Lukman Mahfoedz said during a press conference on Wednesday.

'€œMeanwhile, our Block A project is expected to start producing in 2016 and our Libya project will be in full operation by mid-2017. If people want to see our production hit 100,000 boepd, we might achieve it by 2019.'€

Medco'€™s liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant project at its oil and gas field in Senoro will have a production capacity of 310 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscfd) of gas.

The company is also running a Block A gas facility project in Aceh with a capacity of about 63 mmscfd of gas.

In Libya, the company is developing its Area 47 oil field to reach production of 50,000 boepd and 47 mmscfd of gas, according to the company'€™s annual report.

'€œTo boost our production, we will also carry out several acquisition plans on several active blocks,'€ he said.

'€œThe total investment needed will be according to [the value of] the assets of the acquired blocks, and though we cannot yet disclose any details regarding the plans, there might be an acquisition project in the near future.'€

The company'€™s total oil and gas production dropped 8.82 percent to 62,000 boepd last year, from 68,000 boepd the previous year.

It aims to maintain this year'€™s production at about the same level as last year.

Medco plans to disburse US$441 million of capital expenditure (capex) this year.

Lany D. Wong, Medco'€™s director and chief financial officer, said that the company had disbursed about $84 million of the capex during the first quarter of this year, mostly to finance the company'€™s ongoing projects '€” particularly the Senoro project.

Lany said that the figure was much higher than last year'€™s first quarter figure of $33 million, as the company was committed to concluding its projects and boosting its production immediately.

During the first quarter of this year, Medco doubled its profits despite a slight revenue slump, thanks to its cost reduction strategy.

Medco'€™s net profit during the first three months of 2014 reached $3.6 million, compared to $1.8 million during the same period last year.

Its revenues slipped 8 percent year-on-year (y-o-y) to $202 million between January and March, compared to $220 million recorded in the corresponding period last year.

The company said in a written statement that the revenue drop was mainly caused by lower oil production and prices.

But the decline was countered by the firm slashing its production costs by 12 percent y-o-y to $116 million and its operational costs by 14 percent y-o-y to $25 million.

The company also negotiated its average selling price for gas to $6.56 per million british thermal unit (mmbtu) in the first quarter, compared to $5.15 per mmbtu during the same period last year.