THE president of Cambodia’s national assembly, Prince Norodom Ranariddh told the media that Chevron had been conducting explorations in an area about 140 nautical miles south of the port town of Sihanoukville.

Preliminary estimates of oil reserves in the three fields are at around 400 million barrels in total.

“This morning [21 December] the prime minister [Hun Sen] confirmed to me that the American company Chevron has found oilfields, Ranariddh said.

"There are three oilfields. One has the capacity to develop the economy a lot ... while the other two have an average capacity.”

According to the prince, extraction could begin by 2007. He said the fields were “clearly within Cambodian territory” and that Cambodia should act quickly to pump the deposits as they were connected to those already being pumped by neighbouring Thailand and could soon be empty.

Cambodia lacks legislation covering natural resources extraction and the International Monetary Fund had suggested the country should pass laws before beginning to tap the reserves, Ranariddh said.