Petroneft to pump 4,000 barrels of oil from Siberia in 2010

Irish-based exploration company Petroneft is to begin pumping oil from two fields in Western Siberia before the end of the year.

Petroneft expects to be delivering up to 4,000 barrels a day by December.

Drilling of the first three of nine production wells at the Lineynoye oil field planned for 2010 have been completed ahead of schedule.

In addition to successful production testing the company has completed the construction of a 60km pipeline from the Lineynoye field.

This will allow oil to be shipped when first oil production commences in Q3 2010.

Development of production facilities at the field are also on course for a first production target of Q3 2010.

In addition to the existing production wells, rig-up operations for the Arbuzovskaya exploration well are over 80% complete and drilling is scheduled to commence in October after the nine well production drilling programme has been completed.

This is the first of at least three exploration/delineation wells to be drilled in the northern part of Licence 61 in 2010 and 2011.

This programme has the potential to materially increase both Group reserves and the long term production potential of Licence 61. Licence 61 has been estimated by oil industry analysts Ryder Scott to contain proven and probable oil reserves of 70.8m barrels of oil.

Dennis Francis, Chief Executive Officer of PetroNeft Resources plc, said: "The drilling of our production wells remains ahead of schedule and we are delighted with the well results to date. Pipeline testing is due to commence in the coming weeks and construction of production facilities continues at pace. We look forward to achieving first production in the third quarter and our year-end production target of 4,000 bopd."