The Chinese Lufeng field operated by Statoil yielded more than 26 million barrels of oil between its start-up in December 1997 and early July.
This compares with an output of roughly 25 million barrels forecast when the decision was taken to develop the South China Sea discovery.
Plans call for Lufeng to produce until the end of June 2003, reports operations vice president Holger Boge.
A total of 31 million barrels could have been recovered by then, representing a recovery factor of roughly 30 per cent.
“Production regularity from the field has been 99.4 per cent so far, and all technical aspects are functioning very well,” says Mr Boge.
The oil content in produced water being discharged to the sea is around 15 milligrams per litre, compared with a Chinese government requirement of less than 50 milligrams.
Lufeng is being produced by the Navion Munin multipurpose shuttle tanker and five subsea wells. Daily output currently stands at roughly 9,000 barrels.
Statoil has a 75 per cent interest through its Statoil (Orient) Inc subsidiary. The remaining 25 per cent is held by the state-owned China National Offshore Oil Corporation.