LONDON: Premier Oil Plc, a U.K. oil company, is targeting

LONDON: Premier Oil Plc, a U.K. oil company, is targeting drilling in the second half of 2005 in newly acquired Vietnamese offshore blocks, which includes territory that was disputed with Indonesia until last year.

Premier this year bought the rights to two blocks in Vietnamese waters in the South China Sea, as well as two others over which sovereignty was disputed for 25 years until an accord on the sea boundary was signed during a June 2003 visit to Hanoi by Indonesian President Megawati Soekarnoputri.

The Vietnamese areas are geologically similar to Indonesia's West Natuna where fields, in which Premier invested, are producing about 235 million cubic feet of gas and 12,000 barrels of oil per day, according to Robin Allan, director of business development for the London-based company. -- Bloomberg