UK Premier Oil targets first Vietnamese oil by 2010
SINGAPORE, Feb 29 (Reuters) - UK independent Premier Oil Plc (PMO.L) expects Chim Sao, its first oil project in Vietnam, to be approved this year, and production to start in 2010, a company official said on Friday.
Chim Sao, formerly known as Blackbird, is one of the projects that Premier says will help increase its worldwide production to 50,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) in 2010 from 36,000 boepd last year.
"We are targetting project sanction in 2008 and first oil is targeted in 2010," Barry O'Donnell, Asia regional director for Premier Oil told the 13th Asia Upstream conference.
Chim Sao is one of a series of oilfields to come on stream over the next two years that are expected to help Vietnam, Asia's sixth-largest oil producer, maintain and possibly raise its output from the current 320,000 barrels per day (bpd).
O'Donnell declined to comment on the field's flow rates and reserves.
Premier said last year that based on the Blackbird and Dua discoveries on block 12, recoverable volumes would be approximately 80 million barrels.
Offshore block 12 is located in the prolific Nam Con Son Basin about 400 km (249 miles) southeast of Ho Chi Minh City.
Premier operates block 12 with a 37.5 percent interest in block 12, with partners Australia's Santos (STO.AX) (37.5 percent) and Israel's Delek Energy DEOL.TA (25 percent). (Reporting by Maryelle Demongeot; Editing by Ramthan Hussain)
