SINGAPORE, Feb 27 - Canada's Talisman Energy will ramp up oil production at its Malaysia/Vietnam Northern fields to 40,000 barrels per day (bpd) within three months after the field starts output in end-March, a company official said on Friday.
Talisman, Canada's No.3 independent oil exploration firm, had said it expected first oil in the first quarter of 2009 from the $1.3 billion project, part of the Bunga Kekwa development in PM-3-CAA in the Malaysia-Vietnam Commercial Arrangement Area.
"We'll start up gently and will quickly ramp up... over a period of three months. We will increase gas rates even more over the next six months," Jonathan Wright, senior vice president for Talisman Malaysia, told Reuters at the sidelines of a conference.
Combined gas output from the Northern and Southern fields would increase to 290 million cubic feet a day (scfd) within the next six months from the current 200 million scfd, he said.
The Northern fields, which hold proven reserves of 230 million barrels of oil equivalent, was already producing gas since last July.
Talisman, which had said it wanted to increase focus on Southeast Asia as an area of growth, planned C$730 million in capital expenditure for the region for 2009, up 22 percent from last year, Wright told the upstream oil conference.
Total capital expenditure for this year would drop 38 percent from 2008 to C$3.6 billion, he said.
The Northern oilfield would be the latest in a series of Vietnamese fields planned or brought onstream in recent years, helping to boost production of sweet crudes in Asia Pacific, even as production in some countries with ageing fields in the region fell.
Other new production has also come from Vietnam's Song Doc, Ca Ngu Vang and Su Tu Vang fields last year, while Talisman has two other fields, Hai Su Trang and Hai Su Den, planned for start up by 2012.
Talisman, Canada's No.3 independent oil exploration firm, had said it expected first oil in the first quarter of 2009 from the $1.3 billion project, part of the Bunga Kekwa development in PM-3-CAA in the Malaysia-Vietnam Commercial Arrangement Area.
"We'll start up gently and will quickly ramp up... over a period of three months. We will increase gas rates even more over the next six months," Jonathan Wright, senior vice president for Talisman Malaysia, told Reuters at the sidelines of a conference.
Combined gas output from the Northern and Southern fields would increase to 290 million cubic feet a day (scfd) within the next six months from the current 200 million scfd, he said.
The Northern fields, which hold proven reserves of 230 million barrels of oil equivalent, was already producing gas since last July.
Talisman, which had said it wanted to increase focus on Southeast Asia as an area of growth, planned C$730 million in capital expenditure for the region for 2009, up 22 percent from last year, Wright told the upstream oil conference.
Total capital expenditure for this year would drop 38 percent from 2008 to C$3.6 billion, he said.
The Northern oilfield would be the latest in a series of Vietnamese fields planned or brought onstream in recent years, helping to boost production of sweet crudes in Asia Pacific, even as production in some countries with ageing fields in the region fell.
Other new production has also come from Vietnam's Song Doc, Ca Ngu Vang and Su Tu Vang fields last year, while Talisman has two other fields, Hai Su Trang and Hai Su Den, planned for start up by 2012.
