(Reuters) - General Electric Co's (>> General Electric Company) chief on Wednesday gave a faster timeline for the U.S. conglomerate's massive finance asset sale as he more than doubled a target for benefits from its purchase of Alstom's (>> Alstom) power equipment business.

GE, which announced plans last month to sell $200 billion in GE Capital finance assets, now expects to be largely done with the process by 2016 instead of finishing in 2017, Chief Executive Jeff Immelt told the Electrical Products Group investor conference on Wednesday.

GE estimated selling about $100 billion of the assets this year, up from its earlier target of $90 billion, with deals for $20 billion to $30 billion targeted by the end of the second quarter.

"I'd be disappointed if we don't beat these numbers," Immelt said. "I think we have the potential to do very well on this transaction."

GE's finance pullback would leave it primarily as a maker of big-ticket industrial products such as jet engines, locomotives and power equipment. But its planned 12.4 billion euro ($13.8 billion) purchase of Alstom's power equipment business, the biggest in GE's history, is still awaiting regulatory approval a year after it was announced.

"We like this deal. We're confident it's going to get approved," Immelt told the conference.

Immelt said GE now expects $3 billion in cost savings and other benefits five years after the completion of the Alstom deal, up from $1.2 billion. GE said the deal will add 15 to 20 cents per share in profit in 2018.

Reuters reported last week that the deal was unlikely to win unconditional approval from the European Commission, and GE has said it would be willing to consider concessions.

On Wednesday, Immelt said GE would consider selling intellectual property around a product to get the deal through, but would reject anything that would hurt its service revenue stream. Revenue from servicing power turbines and other equipment generally carries high profit margins.

Immelt also said he expects profit at GE's oil and gas business to decline by between 5 and 10 percent this year; or no profit to a drop of 5 percent, excluding foreign currency fluctuations. Previously, GE had forecast a drop of as much as 5 percent.

Like other suppliers to the energy sector, GE is seen as vulnerable to a sharp slide in oil prices as customers reduce capital expenditures. Immelt said GE plans to cut $1 billion in costs from its oil business, including $600 million this year.

"We expect to have a good business going forward in oil and gas," the CEO said.

GE shares rose 0.9 percent to $27.60 in late-afternoon trading.

(Reporting by Lewis Krauskopf in New York; Editing by Phil Berlowitz and Richard Chang)

By Lewis Krauskopf

Stocks treated in this article : Alstom, General Electric Company