Oseil shuts down production on facility repair

Operator of Oseil oilfield onshore Seram Island, Maluku province, shutdown producing wells since February 11, 2005 as a result of maintenance work to repair damage sustained to Skimmer Oil Tank (SOT), 2.5 percent venturer announced Monday.

Australian junior oil firm Lion Energy said that temporary production facility has arrived at the site and is presently being rigged up to enable production from existing wells to resume as soon as the rig up completed. Lion anticipated that production would recommence on March 10, 2005.

?The temporary production facility is scheduled to be in operations for a minimum of 3 months whilst repairs to SOT and general plants maintenance and repairs are completed. The work requires complete degassing of the facility prior to hot work commencing,? said Lion.

Oseil, which is located in Seram PSC, has 4 producing wells. The block is operated by 97.5 percent interest holder KUFPEC.

The block?s venturers are currently conducting aggressive development program to enable the field to produce 17,000 BPD of crude by mid-2005. (alex)