In its quarterly report, the Melbourne-based company this morning said all subsea equipment has been installed, including subsea trees for Puffin-7 and Puffin-8, the subsea manifold flowlines, umbilicals, and the buoy complete with wires, chains and anchors.

The floating production storage and offtake vessel has been converted and is scheduled to leave Singapore in early August for sea trials before moving to the Puffin field.

“The last quarter has once again been a productive and busy time for the company, with concentration being on the objective for oil production,” AED said.

“While the unseasonal weather conditions experienced in northern Australia have caused some delays, the subsea installation is progressing well.”

As a result, AED expected to start oil production in late August or early September.

“With first oil production clearly in sight from Puffin North East, the company is also developing plans to commence production from Puffin South West, with tentative first production from this region in the first half of 2008,” the company said.

Last month, AED released the results of a review of its petroleum assets, which showed the Puffin and Talbot oil fields were likely to contain 100 million barrels or more of recoverable oil.

AED acquired Talbot in June from Apache Energy for $A2 million, with expected flow rates of 10,000-15,000 barrels of oil per day.

Production from this field is expected to start in late 2008.