[NTBKtrader]

VIENTIANE, July 27 (Reuters) - Oil production from Cambodia may start in 2009, a year later than hoped, though there is increasing interest in exploring as oil prices stay above $70, an official said on Thursday.

U.S. major Chevron Corp.'s (CVX.N: Quote, Profile, Research) oil find is the country's first significant discovery, though Ho Vichit, vice-chairman of the Cambodian National Petroleum Authority, said it was still premature to give a reserve estimate for the field.

"We're optimistic that it will start production in 2009," Vichit told Reuters on the sidelines of an industry conference in the Laotian capital.

The find, called the Khmer Trough, may hold as much as 400 million barrels of crude and 3-5 trillion cubic feet of gas, a Cambodian energy official has said previously.

High crude prices have got other oil majors interested in exploring in the Southeast Asian country, Vichit said, though he declined to name the firms.

"They're not exploring yet but they will be," he said.

http://today.reuters.com/stocks/QuoteCo ... XML&rpc=66

[Revi]

Do you think anyone knew about this oil in the '60's? Was there any ulterior motive to invading Cambodia?

[NTBKtrader]

If there was oil worth producing the natives would have been neutralized and the 'line in the sand' would have been covered up, you are naive. in my opinion...

Vietnam was about controlling communism, the emminent threat to the capitalist west, during it's quick rise after the fall of National socialism. Even though the the Vietnam war was was a worthless fight, that is what it was fought over.

What America should have done is export cheap goods like coca cola to tame the natives and show them the virtues of capitalism.