UPDATE 4-Record oil prices, higher output boost StatoilHydro

(Adds quotes, details from news conference)

By Wojciech Moskwa

OSLO, May 13 (Reuters) - Europe's sixth-largest oil and gas company, StatoilHydro, posted a bigger-than-expected 51.4 billion crown ($10.15 billion) first-quarter operating profit as record oil prices and increased output offset rising costs.

Earnings before interest and taxes at StatoilHydro (STL.OL: Quote, Profile, Research) jumped 49 percent year on year and topped an average forecast of 50.3 billion in a Reuters poll of 21 analysts.

Norway's biggest company, worth some $122 billion, also showed 61 percent growth in net profit to 16.0 billion crowns, slightly below forecasts due to a higher-than-expected tax rate. "These are very strong numbers," said John Olaisen, analyst at brokerage Carnegie in Oslo. "We could see a 2-4 percent increase in full-year consensus estimates on this. They could exceed their 2008 production goal as well."

Shares in StatoilHydro initially rose but later slipped to 192.80 crowns, off 0.5 percent by 1340 GMT, hurt by a downgrade in world oil demand by the International Energy Agency. The Dow Jones Stoxx Oil and Gas index was off 0.9 percent.

Entitlement production -- the share of output from fields taken by StatoilHydro -- was 1.89 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (boed), up from 1.81 million a year ago and ahead of an average forecast of almost 1.86 million.

StatoilHydro's 4.4 percent growth in output compared with steady production at BP (BP.L: Quote, Profile, Research) and Total (TOTF.PA: Quote, Profile, Research), a 5.6 percent fall at Exxon Mobil (XOM.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and a 0.4 percent rise at Shell (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile, Research).

The company stuck to its production target of 1.75 million boed in 2008, growing to 1.96 million barrels in 2012, and said that gas sales, which accounted for about 40 percent of its production in the first quarter, were higher than expected.