Ekofisk oil field

Ekofisk is an oil field in the Norwegian part of the North Sea, about 320 kilometres southwest of Stavanger. It was discovered in 1969 by the American company Phillips Petroleum and remains one of the most important fields in the North Sea.

It was the find that began Norway's oil age. The Ekofisk centre is a hub of platforms and pipelines that also serves nearby fields. It was the first oil found after the drilling of over 200 exploration wells in the North Sea. Phillips's discovery proved that large amounts of oil lay under the cold waters off Norway. Oil production is planned to continue until 2048.

How it began

The discovery came after more than 200 exploration wells were drilled in the North Sea, following the earlier find of the Groningen gas field. In 1971 the field began producing, loading oil directly onto tankers from four subsea wells.

Oil now travels through the Norpipe oil pipeline to Teesside in England, and natural gas goes by Norpipe to Emden in Germany. The field is shaped like a long fold in the rock, an anticline, about 49 square kilometres in area.

A sinking sea floor

In the mid-1980s engineers discovered that the sea floor around the platforms was sinking. As oil was pumped out of the chalk rock about three kilometres below, the rock compacted, and displacements of several metres were recorded.

The complex has 29 platforms in all, and production is planned to continue until at least 2048. Engineers responded by injecting water into the reservoir, but the wet chalk is weaker, so the sea floor kept sinking.

On the globe

Find it on the globe in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea and zoom in to open its card.