MOSCOW. Jan 13 (Interfax) - Lukoil reduces oil production slightly to 96 million tonnes in 2010, while gas production rose 12% to 20 billion cubic meters, the oil company said in a statement following a board meeting that summarized the company's preliminary results in 2010 and set priority tasks for 2011.

According to preliminary estimates, oil production by Lukoil, including the share in affiliated companies' production and overseas projects, came to 96 million tonnes. Compared with 2009, the oil production dropped slightly, which was due to the depletion of the Western Siberian fields, the company said.

The company has said it produced 97.615 million tonnes of oil in 2009, so it must have fallen 1.7% last year. Oil production fell 1.3% year-on-year to 1.952 million barrels per day in January-September 2010.

Lukoil said on January 13 that under the Russian classification, hydrocarbon reserves increment in 2010 reached 123 million tonnes of reference fuel. Six fields (in the Perm region, Uzbekistan, Egypt and Ghana) and 25 new oil deposits were discovered. All of the deposits are located at the fields of