A Chinese oil rig has finished exploration near the Hoang Sa (Paracel) archipelago in the East Vietnam Sea and will be relocated, Xinhua news agency said Wednesday, more than two months after its deployment to Vietnamese waters ignited strong protests from Hanoi.

Xinhua said the rig was scheduled to be moved to what it called the Hainan Lingshui project operations. It gave no date or location for its next job, although Lingshui is a region on the coast of China's southern Hainan island.

The brief report quoted the rig's operator, China Oilfield Services Limited (COSL), as saying drilling, which Vietnam repeatedly condemned as violation of Vietnam’s sovereignty, had been successfully completed on Tuesday.

China had previously said the rig was scheduled to explore the waters around Vietnam’s Hoang Sa (Paracel) archipelago until mid-August.

China has deployed the oil rig at a location of 15°29’58’’ North latitude and 111°12’06’’ East longitude in Vietnamese waters in the East Vietnam Sea since May 1, and dispatched as many as 80 vessels, including warships, to guard the rig.

This location, as announced by the Chinese, is completely within the exclusive economic zone and continental shelf of Vietnam, as it lies about 120 nautical miles from the Vietnamese coast and 18 nautical miles south of Tri Ton Island of Vietnam’s Hoang Sa (Paracel) archipelago, according to the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Under the UNCLOS, coastal states like Vietnam are entitled to a 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone from the base line.

Vietnam has full legal and historical evidence to prove its sovereign right and jurisdiction over the country’s exclusive economic zone and continental shelf in compliance with regulations in the UNCLOS, the ministry said.