UPDATE 1-Gazprom Neft raises 2020 oil output forecast

(Adds figures, detail)

By Alexander Yershov

MOSCOW, April 18 (Reuters) - Gazprom Neft (SIBN.MM), an oil arm of Russian gas giant Gazprom (GAZP.MM), said on Friday it planned to more than double oil output by 2020 to 2 million barrels per day, up by a quarter from its previous forecast.

Roman Yefimychev, head of Gazprom Neft's petrochemical department, told a conference his firm would be producing 100 million tonnes of oil per year by 2020, a 25 percent increase from its previous forecast of 80 million tonnes.

Gazprom Neft, Russia's fifth-largest oil producer, has been fighting declining production since its former owner, billionaire Roman Abramovich, sold the firm, then called Sibneft, to the gas giant in 2005.

The company, which produced around 43 million tonnes of oil in 2007, flat from 2006, has said it expects Gazprom to hand over the right to develop all of Gazprom's 11 oil fields within the next two to three years, which might help boost production.

Gazprom produced 13.2 million tonnes from the deposits last year.

Gazprom Neft has said it plans to invest up to $4 billion per year to 2020, or around $50 billion, to boost output.

Yefimychev also said Gazprom Neft planned to almost triple refining to 76 million tonnes of oil per year by 2020 from 28 million tonnes it processed in 2007 as it expected to acquire a new plant and expand existing ones.

"This may be through acquisition or building a new refinery," he said.

Yefimychev added that the refining forecast figure included 40 million tonnes to be processed in Russia and 36 million tonnes to be refined abroad, including at the Serbian NIS refinery it acquired earlier this year.

Russian media has quoted Gazprom Neft Chief Executive Alexander Dyukov as saying his firm would study swapping its production facilities in Russia with refineries of western partners Eni (ENI.MI), Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) or Chevron (CVX.N).

Yefimychev said Gazprom Neft was planning to expand refining capacity at its Omsk refinery to around 19 million tonnes per year from the current 16 million tonnes by 2015.

The capacity of the firm's Yaroslavl refinery is expected to be increased to 16-18 million tonnes from the current 12 million tonnes.

(Writing by Tanya Mosolova; editing by Chris Johnson)