The very first producing well on a fixed installation on the Norwegian continental shelf – well A 13 on Ekofisk 2/4 A - is now being permanently plugged.

There is a historic perspective on the plugging operation that the drilling rig Rowan Gorilla VI now carries out for ConocoPhillips on the Ekofisk 2/4 A platform in the North sea. Well A-13 is being plugged permanently, 42 years after it started production. The plugging operation takes just under one month.

Norway´s oil production started on Ekofisk in June 1971. In the beginning, oil was produced from subsea solutions to the jack-up rig Gulftide. It was therefore a huge milestone when the first well on the Ekofisk 2/4 A platform started producing three years later - in April 1974.

Well A-13 was spudded in November 1973 and the drilling campaign lasted for 163 days. The well reached a total depth of 3,444 meters. On 25 April 1974, the first oil from Ekofisk 2/4 A was transported via a pipeline to loading buoy number 1 and to the tanker Elisabeth Fernstrøm ready to receive the production. This was the starting point for oil production from fixed installations on the Norwegian shelf.

The well was in production for 27 years before it was shut in. Over the years, it had produced 82.2 million barrels of oil equivalent. Permanent plugging and abandonment means that up to five cement plugs are installed at different depths in a well, to avoid any future leaks.

The Christmas tree from well A-13 will be donated to the Norwegian Oil Museum in Stavanger.

Norway's first fixed producing platform - Ekofisk 2/4 A.
Photo: ConocoPhillps/Kjetil Alsvik