Premier Oil starting Vietnam, Indonesia production 2011

UK oil and gas explorer Premier Oil PLC will start production at the 25,000 barrels per day Chim Sao oilfield offshore Vietnam in July 2011, a company executive said on Thursday.

The company will also begin production at the more than 100 million cubic meter per day Gajah Baru gas field offshore Indonesia around July next year, said Robin Allan, Asia director at Premier.

He said Premier is spending about US$900 million in the Asian upstream sector in the next two years with a focus on Southeast Asia.

The crude from the Chim Sao field has similar qualities to Vietnam’s light sweet Bach Ho grade, he told Reuters on the sidelines of an upstream conference organized by Global Pacific and Partners in Singapore.

“We will be working with PV Oil to market the crude,” he said, referring to the marketing arm of PetroVietnam.

Proven and probable reserves at the Chim Sao oilfield is more than 50 million barrels, he added.

The gas from the Gajah Baru field in the Natuna Sea will be piped to Singapore and Indonesia’s Batam island, Allan said.

The company has discovered 450 million barrels of oil equivalent in net resources, he told the conference.

By end-2012 almost half of Premier’s production will be in Asia, he said.

The company also has oil and gas interests in the North Sea and the Middle East-Pakistan region with total global production of 44,200 barrels of oil equivalent per day.

The firm is also awaiting extensions of production sharing contracts at two gas fields in northern Sumatra and will acquire 3-D seismic data at the Tuna gas field in Natuna, that lies in Indonesian territorial waters.

Reuters

Tags: Premier Oil, Vietnam oil and gas