Oil production from Statoil's Norne field in the Norwegian Sea recently passed 200,000 barrels per day.
This record was immediately broken on Monday 6 December, when daily output reached 210,000 barrels. The Norne production ship was originally designed to yield 173,000 barrels per day, but that figure has since been upgraded to 220,000 barrels.
"We're a little uncertain where the ceiling for peak production actually lies," says operations vice president Hans Eidissen. "That's what we're now trying to establish."
He expects it to take a few weeks before this has been clarified.
The output record follows the drilling of new producers on the field, which is currently flowing oil from 11 wells.
A total of 11 production wells and six for gas/water injection are due to be completed on Norne by the first quarter of next year.
The field is currently earning some NOK 40 million per day. Rising production and higher oil prices mean that this figure is well above the original estimates in the plan for development and operation (PDO) submitted in the autumn of 1994.
Since coming on stream in November 1997, Norne has yielded 88.7 million barrels of oil with a sales value of NOK 13.3 billion at a price of NOK 150 per barrel.