Oil and shipping group A.P. Moeller said it hoped to maintain its record North Sea oil production in 2001 at 300,000 barrels per day (bpd). Danish Underground Consortium (DUC), in which A.P. Moeller holds a 39 percent stake, produced 1.275 million tons of oil in 2000, 10.1 percent above 1999 level, while gas production was down 3.5 percent at 6.401 billion cu. "Oil production in 2000 was in line with expectations. We hope to maintain the current production of 300,000 bpd, but it's an ambitious target," Maersk Oil & Gas deputy director Bo Wildfang told Reuters. A.P. Moller had expected its oil and gas production in 2000 to end "a little higher" than in 1999.