Denmark cuts 2008-2010 oil production estimates

COPENHAGEN, June 25 (Reuters) - Oil production from Denmark's North Sea fields will fall to 103.2 million barrels this year, the annual report from the Danish Energy Authority showed on Wednesday.

The forecast is 8 percent lower than the authority's estimate of 112.0 million barrels from June 2007, mainly due to reduced expectations of production from the Syd Arne, Halfdan and Dan fields.

Production in 2007 was 113.8 million barrels.

For 2009, the agency sees production falling to 94.3 million barrels, a drop of 11 percent compared with the year-ago forecast.

The forecast for 2010 has been lowered by 2.5 percent and production is now seen rising to 98.8 million barrels.

The forecasts for gas production have also been lowered. The authority now sees production of 8.6 billion cubic metres for 2008 and 2009. This compares with the previous forecast of annual production of 9.1 billion cubic metres for these years.

Denmark is Western Europe's third-largest oil producer after Norway and Britain.

Danish Underground Consortium (DUC) is responsible for most of the crude oil output from Denmark's North Sea oil and gas fields.

A.P. Moller-Maersk (MAERSKb.CO) owns 39 percent of DUC, while Royal Dutch Shell Group (RDSa.L)(RDSb.L) and Chevron (CVX.N) own 46 percent and 15 percent respectively.

The agency estimated Denmark's reserves to be 1.35 billion barrels of oil and 105 billion cubic metres of gas as of Jan. 1 this year. This is a fall of 11 and 13 percent respectively compared with last year's estimate, mainly due to production last year, the agency said. (Reporting by Kim McLaughlin; editing by James Jukwey)