STATOIL is calling it a day with the Lufeng field after more than 12 years of production.
The field, located in China’s South China Sea, is being transferred to Chinese National Offshore Oil Company (CNOOC) for abandonment.
The transfer of full responsibility for abandoning the field was mutually agreed by the two companies. It is to take place shortly after the production shutdown later this year.
Lufeng 22-1 lies some 250km south-east of Hong Kong.
The field was discovered in 1983 by Occidental. Ampolex took over in 1991 and sold its interests to Statoil in 1996.
The field was brought onstream in 1997 based on an Aker-designed multi-shuttle production tanker.
Lufeng was originally planned to produce 25million barrels of oil, but got past 42million by year-end 2008.
Production was originally scheduled to shutdown in 2004.