* Production at field planned at 2.5 mln tonnes this year
* The field is key to company's plans to raise oil output
(Adds company's comment)
MOSCOW, April 19 (Reuters) - Russian oil producer Gazprom
Neft SIBN.MM will delay the start of commercial production at
its key Novoportovskoye oilfield by around six months, two
company sources told Reuters on Tuesday.
One source, who works at the field on the Yamal peninsula in
the Arctic, said commercial production would start no earlier
than September due to technological problems.
Russia's fourth-largest oil producer had planned to launch
production at the field this spring and the project is seen as
crucial to the company hitting its target of 100 million tonnes,
or 2 million barrels per day, of oil by 2020.
The second source said output would be less than the 2.5
million tonnes of oil the company had planned to produce this
year. The source, who is unauthorised to speak to the media,
declined to say how much less the company would produce.
Gazprom Neft, a subsidiary of gas producer Gazprom
GAZP.MM , said work aimed at the field's launch is in the final
stages.
"The plan on production and oil loadings is still relevant,"
a spokesman said, without giving further details.
The company has put the field's oil reserves at more than
250 million tonnes of oil and gas condensate as well as more
than 320 billion cubic metres of natural gas.
Gazprom Neft's oil output jumped by 5 percent year-on-year
in March to 3 million tonnes (709,000 bpd), the biggest increase
among its Russia's peers.
The relatively high volumes of the field's light low-sulphur
oil could also allow the creation of a new oil grade to feed
refineries in northwest Europe.
Alternatively, oil could be shipped to Asia, though this
could only be done over short periods because of difficulties
navigating through winter ice.