Total reported bumper earnings on Friday, bolstered by stronger oil prices, and the French oil major unveiled plans to spend $20 billion this year on new oil and gas projects to boost flagging production.

Europe's third-largest oil group, which spent billions of dollars in 2010 on Canadian oil sands and Australian offshore gas, said it targeted more acquisitions to renew its production portfolio, as well as sell non-core assets.

In the final quarter of 2010, Total saw its oil and gas production rise by only 0.4 percent to 2.38 million barrels of oil equivalent per day as it had no major project start-up in 2010.

France's biggest company by market capitalization made no production forecast for this year, but it said it planned to start up its huge Angolan offshore Pazflor project in the fourth quarter.

It also said it targeted numerous projects in Russia, Canada, Australia and China.

Stripping out one-offs, Total saw net profit rise to 10.29 billion euros ($14.01 billion) in 2010 from 7.78 billion euros a year ago.

Sales rose 21 percent to 159.3 billion euros as oil prices more than doubled on the back of the global economic rebound.

For the fourth-quarter, net income came in at 2.56 billion euros, up 23 percent year on year and in line with the average forecast of 2.55 billion euros of a Reuters poll.

Total's annual profits are still some way off their record of 14 billion euros, which caused a political outcry and calls for a windfall tax which Total successfully resisted in 2008.

Poor demand, and strikes in French refineries over pension reform and the closure of a plant in Dunkirk, pushed 2010 refinery output down 7 percent to 2.009 million barrels per day.

Chief Executive Christophe de Margerie is likely to be quizzed over the political situation in northern Africa and the Middle East, where there are concerns among oil traders that unrest could spread to key producing countries and hit output and transport.

Total said it would step up measures to improve profitability in its European refinery business, but gave no further details.

The company said it planned to start up new units at its U.S. Port Arthur refinery and boost its presence in growth markets, typically the Middle East and China.

Total's bigger rival Royal Dutch Shell had blamed weak refinery margins for forecast-lagging fourth-quarter results that showed a net profit of $4.1 billion short of a Reuters poll forecast of $4.85 billion.

In 2010, Total spent $1 billion to buy a 27.5 percent stake in Australia's Gladstone LNG.

In Canada, the world's largest crude oil reserve outside the Middle East, it acquired oil sands development group UTS for $1.5 billion and agreed to spend $1.7 billion for new stakes in two oil sands projects.

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