Wellington, July 5 NZPA - Production from the Tui area oil fields off the Taranaki Coast is expected to fall by about two-fifths in the coming year, as production rates decline naturally and one of the wells in the field is shut in for repairs.

Operator AWE, which has a 42.5 percent stake in the project, today said 4.83 million barrels was produced from Tui in the year to June 30, slightly above a revised forecast of 4.8m barrels.

It forecast production for the year to June 2011 of 2.84m barrels, which took into account the recent shut-in of the Pateke-3H well -- one of four producing wells at Tui -- for repairs to its artificial lift system.

Planning for a workover of the well was under way, with a restart to production from Pateke estimated to happen in the middle of the 2010 fourth quarter, AWE said.

New Zealand Oil and Gas, which is a 12.5 percent partner in Tui, said production rates were in a natural decline although an estimated 22.3m barrels of recoverable reserves remained.

NZOG said its share of Tui production in the past year was 604,000 barrels.