Japan’s AOC Holdings Inc said it now expects to start oil production in the Yme field in the North Sea off Norway by the end of next March.

It originally planned to start production this month, and company officials said the later date was due to a delay in the installation of a platform.

Production is expected to average 40,000 to 50,000 barrels per day, one of them added. AOC has a stake of 10 percent in the oil field.

Operator Talisman Energy of Canada and its partners are redeveloping the Yme fields, which halted production in the early 2000s, using new recovery technology such as gas injection processes to draw out oil.

AOC in February delayed plans to start commercial crude oil output from Egypt’s offshore Northwest October block in the northern Gulf of Suez until May 2012.

(Source: Reuters)