Medco, partner may spend $500m to develop Libyan oil field

JSX-listed energy firm PT.Medco Energi Internasional Tbk. and partner may spend as much as US$500 million to bring its newly discovered Lybian oil field into production in 2009, a company official said.

Medco CEO Hilmi Panigoro told reporters on a sideline of Indonesian Petroleum Engineers Association in Jogjakarta on Friday that the fields in Area 47 in Libya might be producing 100,000 barrels per day as exploration from the three wells has been tested to flow oil more than 10,000 BPD each and the fourth well that is currently drilling had shown promising indication.

Medco has 50 percent interest in Area 47 block, while the block?s operator Canadian firm Verenex Energy has the remaining balance. The partnership had so far 100 percent sucess record in drilling the area.

Meanwhile, Hilmi also said that Medco is expected to commence listing its subsidiary in the Main Board of the London Stock Exchange in the fisrt quarter of next years. ?Preparations are currently underway,? he said. Medco will put together all its non-Indonesian upstream units in the company. (alex)