ABUJA, April 1, 2008 (AFP) - Nigeria can succeed in raising oil production to a 2010 target of four million barrels per day (bpd), Oil Minister Odein Ajumogobia said in an interview Monday.

'I admit it's ambitious but I think it's feasible,' Ajumogobia told AFP, adding that Nigeria already had the capacity to raise its production level from 2.1 million bpd at present to 3.2 million bpd.

'I say it's feasible because the additional one million barrels that we are not producing... is because of the security issue we have in the Niger Delta, and technical and funding issues which we are trying to address,' he said.

Recent months have seen a wave of kidnappings of oil workers, sabotage of oil company installations and attacks on government targets in the volatile south of the world's eighth largest oil producer.

Ajumogobia said the security issue in the delta accounts for between 400,000 and 500,000 bpd of the loss.

Many analysts are sceptical about the government's target, saying that while new offshore fields are set to come on line, that gain in production will continue to be offset, at least to some extent, by volatility in the Niger Delta.

Ajumogobia confirmed he agrees with the stance of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) that OPEC production should be maintained at current levels, despite calls from the United States for an increase.

In the past months the minister has repeatedly warned that rising crude prices could in the long term have an adverse effect on oil producing countries, particularly in the context of an economic slowdown in the main consumer countries, notably the United States and Europe.

Ajumogobia also said he thought that sky-high oil prices would stabilise and that there would be an 'inevitable' upturn in the US economy.

The minister said discussions are underway between oil producing countries on the possibility of denominating oil contracts in euros rather than dollars, but he warned that caution should be exercised.

'A lot of world reserves are held in US dollars, oil markets are computed in the US dollars,' he said.

'Before countries take a radical move away from what is currently accepted globally, I think one needs to be sure you are not reacting to the present situation rather than a more long term situation.'