On Wednesday 9 June fifty years ago the Prime Minister Trygve Bratteli officially opened Norway’s first oil production from the Gulftide rig on Ekofisk in the North Sea. The day marks the anniversary offshore with the reopening of the Tor field in the Greater Ekofisk Area (GEA), yet another contribution to value creation in Norway.

Over five decades, Ekofisk has mirrored the Norwegian oil adventure in many ways, and Bratteli made correct assumptions in his statement 9 June 1971:

‘We hope that the results of the pilot production will be positive, and that this will include Norway in the ranks of oil-producing countries. The opening of this oil production can become a milestone in our economic history'.

With almost 2,600 billion Norwegian kroner in value creation from the GEA, significant value remains to be materialized to the Norwegian society. From importing competence and technology in the 1960s and 1970s, Ekofisk has quickly become a catalyst for the development of the Norwegian oil and gas industry that today exports world-class competence and technology.

The beginning and future milestones

On the Tor field, 13 kilometers northeast of the Ekofisk Complex, we find some of the first wells drilled offshore in Norway. The Tor field started producing in 1978 and was shut in 2015. At the time, the field’s lifetime was achieved, but the story of the Tor field was far from over. Five years later, a new development allows new production, now from eight wells divided between two subsea templates.

‘The Tor field represents both the beginning and the future for ConocoPhillips in Norway. 50 years have passed since first production start-up on the Norwegian continental shelf, and the reopening of the Tor field will ensure several additional years of production from the Greater Ekofisk Area and ConocoPhillips,’ President of Europe, Middle East and North Africa, Steinar Våge said.

Currently, the company is evaluating new development projects in the GEA. In addition, we have made several significant oil and gas discoveries recently. Two discoveries located in the Norwegian Sea and one in the North Sea contribute to continued optimism on the Norwegian shelf. Our ambition is to create value through our activities, contributing to employment in many years to come.

Values and ripple effects

Since the production start-up in 1971, the GEA has created estimated values of almost 2,600 billion kroner, whereas 1,200 billion kroner are taxes and fees. The value creation originates from more than six billion barrels of oil equivalent produced in the GEA. 4.2 billion barrels comes from the Ekofisk field alone, while Eldfisk has produced 1.1 billion, and 0.8 billion barrels of oil equivalent originates from other fields in the area. The recovery rate has exceeded the original expected rate of 17 percent to over 50 percent today.

‘This value creation is all about development, knowledge increase and collaboration across disciplines, that again has contributed to the transfer of technology and competence to other industries in Norway and the world,’ Våge added.
Approximately 3000 people are employed in the GEA, whereas 1000 workers are offshore at any given time. This number includes everyone working at the platforms, rigs and vessels. In addition, all activities in the GEA receive support from approximately 900 employees at the Tananger headquarters. Our employees live in all counties in Norway.

About 95 percent of the annual contract awards of an annually estimate of 10-12 billion kroner are granted to the Norwegian supply industry. The ripple effects provide job creation and activities in many local communities.

Nobody gets hurt

The most important part of the Ekofisk history is about the improvements made within health, safety, and environment. Over five decades in the North Sea, we have built a strong safety culture in the company. Continuous focus on HSE, always has the highest priority. All employees – in every part of the organization play a vital role to improve our HSE performance.

The tragic incidents, the Ekofisk Bravo blowout in 1977 and the Alexander L. Kielland accident in 1980 have made a large impact on the safety culture in ConocoPhillips and the safety standard on the Norwegian shelf, impacting the company’s best practices and competence. Nothing is so urgent or important, that we cannot take time to do it safely and in an environmentally prudent manner! After 50 years of operation and development, we have one of the safest workplaces on the continental shelf.

More sustainability

During the course of the last two decades, many low emission reductions measures have been implemented in the Greater Ekofisk Area. We will continue our work to achieve the zero-emissions target by 2050.

A new power cable from the Eldfisk Complex to Eldfisk 2/7 B was installed to phase out diesel driven power with steam power. The project is expected to reduce CO2 emissions by 1,000 tonnes a year and NOx emissions of 167 tonnes a year.
Further three platform supply vessels installed hybrid power solutions, reducing diesel consumption up to 15 percent, including the decrease of associated NOx and CO2 emissions. Last fall a new project was implemented to reduce the flaring at the Ekofisk J platform. It is expected to annually reduce the CO2 emissions at Ekofisk with 26,000 tonnes, starting in 2022. Several installations have also been removed and scrapped and approximately 98 percent of the metal have been recycled.

Norwegian authorities have set the maximum oil-in-water content in produced water to 30 mg/l. The oil in water concentration in the GEA has been a record low 6.9 mg/l in recent years.

Success depends on our people

Without the tens of thousands of employees that works and have been working at Ekofisk over five decades, we would not have made these achievements.

‘I would like to thank all our skilled employees, partners, suppliers and the authorities. Our joint success is a result of collaboration across teams and companies, and ability to learn from each other. I am proud of the work that has been done and the ongoing work to continue the value creation for our communities and everyone involved,' Steinar Våge concluded.