Marathon Oil Corp (MRO) Monday said it is terminating a service agreement with AP Moller-Maersk A/S (MAERSK-B.KO) relating to the Alvheim field in Norway and will assume operations and staffing there itself.

Marathon said it will directly staff and operate the floating production storage and offtake, or FPSO vessel at Alvheim from the second half of 2010. The field started up in June 2008 and output has now reached a stable level of 140,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day, well above the design capacity of 120,000 barrels a day.

Alvheim is owned by Marathon, with 65%, Lundin Norway with 15% and ConocoPhillips (COP) with 20%. Oil from the field is exported by tankers, while processed rich gas from the field is piped into the SAGE system on the U.K. continental shelf.

Company Web site: www.marathon.com

-By Elizabeth Adams, Dow Jones Newswires; +44 (0) 20 7842 9386; elizabeth.adams@dowjones.com