OSLO, Jan 17 (Reuters) - Norway's Aker BP willincrease its dividend payments between now and 2023 and willstep up its investment spending in developing oil and gas fieldsoffshore Norway next year, the independent oil company said onThursday.
The company is the result of the 2016 merger between theNorwegian operations of BP and the Det norske oil firmowned by Norwegian billionaire Kjell Inge Roekke. It has becomeone of the biggest players offshore Norway.
"The board proposes dividends for 2019 of $750 million, upfrom $450 million in 2018, with an ambition to increase dividendpayments by $100 million per year to 2023," Aker BP said in astatement.
The 2019 payout was an increase of $200 million from itsprevious plan.
Aker BP will also raise its capital expenditure by a thirdto $1.6 billion between 2018 and 2019 and its explorationspending by 40 percent to $500 million over the same period;
Aker BP expects its production to be between 155,000 and160,000 barrels of oil equivalents per day (boepd) in 2019compared to an average output of 155,700 boepd in 2018, itadded.(Reporting by Gwladys Fouche and Ole Petter Skonnord, editingby Terje Solsvik)