TOKYO (Reuters) -- Cosmo Oil Co., Japan’s fourth-biggest oil refiner, said on Friday its subsidiary and the Qatar government have agreed to develop a new offshore oilfield in Qatar, which is expected to produce 3,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil from 2010.

Cosmo’s 85.8 percent-owned joint venture with Japanese trading house Sojitz Corp. will invest 10 billion yen ($94 million) in the development of the field, located in A-structure South of offshore Block 1 in southeastern Qatar, over the next two years, a Cosmo spokesman said.
The crude output will be shared with Qatar under a production-sharing pact.
Cosmo’s current output of medium heavy Qatar Marine crude from Block 1 is expected to double to 10,000 bpd by March from the current 5,000 bpd. The venture’s total crude output in Qatar will rise to 13,000 bpd when the new field comes into stream in 2010.
Cosmo said in October it has obtained a 35 percent stake in an offshore Block 3 oilfield in Qatar under a production-sharing pact, seeking to further boost its output in the OPEC producer.
Crude output from Cosmo’s overseas interests accounts for about 5 percent of its total imported crude volume, but it aims to boost this rate to 10 percent in the medium to long term, Cosmo said in its annual report last year.