Nippon Oil Starts Commercial Production

Nippon Oil Corp. has started commercial production of crude oil at a reservoir in the North Sea. Maximum daily oil production at the Blane field, located some 260 kilometers east of Scotland's Aberdeen, is estimated at 17,000 barrels.

MOC Exploration (U.K.) Ltd., a fifty-fifty joint venture between Nippon Oil and the Japanese government, holds a 14.0 pct stake in the concession, which accounts for daily production of 2,380 barrels of crude oil. Nippon Oil plans to transport the crude oil from the field to the Scottish mainland via a pipeline, and then sell it on to European users, it said. The Blane field produces light crude oil, suitable for processing into gasoline and gas oil.