PTTEP reports oil spill in Australian Montara field

BANGKOK Aug 21 (Reuters) - Thailand's PTT Exploration and Production (PTTEP) PTTE.BK on Friday reported oil and gas spills at a drilling well in the Australian Montara field, which had forced it to evacuate 69 staff from the area.

About 40 barrels of crude oil were leaked, along with an unspecified amount of condensate and natural gas from Montara, one of three oil and gas fields that the company is involved with in the southern Timor Sea, it said in a statement.

Chief Executive Anon Sirisaengtaksin told Reuters it would take time for the company to assess the situation and decide whether it would start commercial operations in November 2009 as planned.

"There is no environmental impact. We have measures to prevent that, and we will take specialists to look after it," he added.

The Montara field could be one of the main sources of profit for PTTEP in the second half as many analysts expect higher output from new oil and gas fields to boost its sales.

PTTEP plans to produce about 35,000 barrels of oil per day from the Montara field, which should boost its 2009 petroleum sales to 240,000 bpd.

PTTEP owns 100 percent of the Montara field through its wholly owned Australasia, formerly known as Coogee Resources, which the Thai firm acquired this year.

It is the flagship in the exploration and production business of top Thai energy firm PTT PTT.BK and is involved in about 40 oil and gas exploration and development projects in 14 countries in the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

On Friday, PTTEP stock closed up 0.4 percent at 141 baht, while the overall market was 0.57 percent higher. (Reporting by Khettiya Jittapong and Wilawan Pongpitak; Editing by Alan Raybould)