Lufeng 

The oil field Lufeng lies in the South China Sea, about 250 kilometres south-east of Hongkong.

It has been developed with multipurpose shuttle tanker MST Navion Munin in production ship mode, and five horizontal wells drilled through a seabed template in 333 metres of water.

Processing equipment installed on deck stabilises oil from the subsea wells for storage in the ship's cargo tanks before transfer to conventional shuttle tankers for shipment to land.

Choice of development concept and production operations have been pursued in close cooperation with the China National Offshore Oil Company (CNOOC).

Lufeng 22-1 was discovered in 1983 by Occidental, which gave up after test production in the late 1980s. Ampolex took over in 1991 and sold its interests on to Statoil in 1996. The field was brought on stream in 1997.

The challenge for the group was to demonstrate that it could develop small fields with modern and cost-effective technical solutions.

New technology has made it profitable to extend production from Lufeng until 2008, rather than shutting it down in 2004 as originally planned.