Last week oil production from the field totalled 345,117 barrels, an average of 49,302 barrels a day, the highest weekly production total to date, and on November 21 a one-day record of 56,467 barrels was achieved, well exceeding the Umuroa FPSO's nameplate capacity of 50,000bpd.

Since the start of production on July 30, the Tui Area Oil Project has produced about 4.7 million barrels of oil, and 4.5MMbbl have been shipped, mainly to refineries in eastern Australia. The next shipment is due early next month.

These exports have contributed to record New Zealand trade figures for August, September and October.

New Zealand's petroleum exports reached $NZ314 million ($A270 million) for October, five times higher than the same month last year when Tui was not online.

Economists are predicting that Tui production will add 0.3% to New Zealand’s GDP in the September quarter.

Proved and probable (2P) reserves in the Tui Area Oil Fields have been upgraded by the operator Australian Worldwide Exploration to 41.7MMbbl, almost 50% higher than the estimated reserves of 27.9MMbbl on which the project was sanctioned.

Estimated production for the 2007/08 year has been increased from 10MMbbl to at least 11MMbbl.

The Tui Area partners are: AWE 42.5%, Mitsui E&P Australia 35%, New Zealand Oil & Gas 12.5% and Pan Pacific Petroleum 10%.