Thailand's PTT Exploration and Production (PTTEP) will begin producing gas and condensate from Oman in July, earlier than the previously expected end-year start, a company official said.

PTTEP will produce 50 million cubic feet (mcf) a day of gas and 4,000 barrels per day (bpd) of condensate, an ultra-light oil, from its Oman 44 block. This will be ramped up to 100 mcf a day of gas and 10,000 bpd of oil by the end of the year.
“Production will start this July and will be steadily increased,” Suwit Pitrchart, senior vice-president for business development at PTTEP, said on the sidelines of an oil exploration conference in Singapore.
He said the gas would go to Oman while the company was still in talks with buyers for the oil.
“We will rely on larger imports, with limited potential for petroleum reserves in Thailand,” he said.
PTTEP is 65 per cent owned by top Thai state firm PTT, and its subsidiary PTTEP Oman owns the Oman 44 project.
PTTEP has 13 projects overseas as it looks to meet surging domestic energy demand.
Suwit  also said PTTEP expects to start output at its Arthit gas field in the Gulf of Thailand by mid-2007, keeping the country dependent on imported fuel oil for power this year.
This is later than an October start date hoped for by domestic power providers, who have been forced to increase costly fuel oil imports, since infrastructure such as a terminal and pipeline from the field still need constructing.