BG Group today announced the start of production from the Greater Bongkot South field in the Gulf of Thailand, approximately 200 kilometres east of the city of Songkhla in southern Thailand.

The field, located some 70 kilometres to the south of the existing Bongkot North development, has new standalone facilities with processing capacity of 350 million cubic feet of gas and 15 000 barrels of condensate per day.

BG Group Chief Executive Sir Frank Chapman said: “The start up of Greater Bongkot South was delivered to schedule and within budget. It will increase production capacity for BG Group in Thailand by 50% and will provide material new gas volumes for sale into a growing market. Once plateau production is achieved, Greater Bongkot South will deliver some 14 000 barrels of oil equivalent per day net to BG Group. This development forms part of our portfolio of named projects and discovered resources that keep us on track to deliver our 6% to 8% production growth range by the end of the decade.”

Production is expected to reach plateau in the second quarter of 2012. Gas from the project is exported via a new-build spur line while condensate is exported to a floating, storage and offloading vessel at Bongkot North. Production is sold to PTT Public Company.

BG Group has a 22.22% interest in the Bongkot field (PTTEP, operator, 44.45% and Total 33.33%).