Paul Endacott, vice chair of Phillips Petroleum Company, was taking a European holiday in the summer of 1960. While in the Groningen area of the Netherlands, he was interested to see a drilling rig at work in shallow water.

After receiving the licence application from Phillips, the Norwegian government had to clarify who had jurisdiction over the seabed off the Norwegian coast. This issue became increasingly urgent as more oil companies began to make contact.

Phillips secured a permit on 6 June to carry out seismic surveys on the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS).

Interpretation of the seismic data acquired by Phillips in 1963-64 confirmed the geologists’ assumptions. The sedimentary deposits extended northwards through the North Sea, and many interesting structures were identified which the explorers itched to drill.

Negotiations were conducted in the early 1960s over which countries should exercise jurisdiction over the various parts of the North Sea. These talks were based on the continental shelf convention agreed in Geneva during 1958. Had more people thought there might be oil and gas off Norway’s coasts, greater conflict could have arisen in the discussions. As it was, the UK, Norway, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands reached agreement in 1965 to observe the median line principle enshrined in the convention. That gave Norway control over 131 000 square kilometres of the seabed in the North Sea.

The first Norwegian offshore licensing round was announced on 13 April 1965, four days after a royal decree had established rules on exploring for and exploiting submarine petroleum deposits.

Drilling superintendent Alfred Crump arrived in Stavanger on 6 November to establish base operations for Phillips. Operational management could not lie in Oslo, but had to be closer to the exploration sites off southern and western Norway.

Phillips secured a lease for 0.5 hectares of land at Notberget in Dusavik from local shipowner Torolf Smedvig. Blasting operations began on the same day.

Ocean Traveler spudded (started) the first well on the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS) for Esso in block 8/3. Built in New Orleans, this drilling rig had arrived in Stavanger in June 1965.

Half the hull of Ocean Viking was built by Rosenberg mek Verksted in Stavanger, and the rest by Danish shipbuilder Burmeister & Wain in Copenhagen.

Phillips and its licence partners felt the blocks they had been awarded were rather too concentrated, and negotiations with the Petronord group reached agreement on an exchange of holdings.

The Dusavik base office was established on 1st March 1967 to supply the Ocean Viking drilling rig with necessary consumables once it started work for the Phillips group.

14th July 1967 Ocean Viking spudded its first well on the Norwegian continental shelf in 67 metres of water, and drilled to a maximum depth of about 3 000 metres.

The discovery of gas and condensate in block 7/11 – the Cod field – was announced by Phillips on 24 June 1968 and attracted great attention in the media.

Management at the Phillips Petroleum head office in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, was starting to lose faith in the Norwegian continental shelf by the summer of 1969, after drilling several dry wells.

Henry Munkejord was among the people present at the Ekofisk discovery in the autumn of 1969, 50 years ago, when he worked as a roughneck for drilling company Odeco on Ocean Viking.

The Ekofisk name has a rather unusual history, which starts from the fact that Phillips initially assigned letters of the alphabet to its various exploration areas off Norway.

Phillips announced on 2 June 1970 that a giant oil discovery had been made on the Norwegian continental shelf - an elephant!

An official Ekofisk committee was appointed on 8 August to study options for bringing the field’s resources ashore. Norsk Hydro’s Torvild Aakvaag as well as Ed Jobin and Paul W Tucker from Phillips represented the Phillips group.

Ekofisk ranked at the first major discovery in chalk, and its reservoir pressure was abnormally high. Phillips accordingly felt it was important to gain production experience with a trial phase in order to monitor the producing wells and test the pressure build-up in them.

The start of the construction of permanent platforms in the field was called phase II.

When trial production began on Ekofisk, the crude was transferred to shuttle tankers via loading buoys and the gas flared off. But this approach was not sustainable in the longer term.

“We hope that the results of the trial production will be positive, and that this will incorporate Norway in the ranks of oil-producing nations,” said prime minister Trygve Bratteli when he officially inaugurated Norwegian oil output.

Ekofisk is one of the biggest fields on the NCS, and the first to come on stream off Norway. After the discovery had been proven in 1969, bringing it into production was a matter of urgency so that the licensees could start to make money. Ekofisk thereby became the first Norwegian laboratory for testing subsea technology.

The Choctaw crane barge installed the first support for the bridge to the southern flare stack on 1 December 1971 as the initial step towards putting the Ekofisk Complex in place.

The Ekofisk committee was appointed by the Storting (parliament) on 8 August 1970 with a mandate to assess the best way of bringing oil and gas ashore from the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS).

The Ministry of Industry gave its consent on 1 March 1972 to the technical proposals for the second phase of the Ekofisk development.

The Ocean Viking rig drilled exploration wells during 1972 in the north-western corner of block 2/7, which became known as South-West Ekofisk.

Shell had considered drilling as early as 1969 in block 1/6, north-west of Ekofisk block 2/4. But it dropped the idea. In 1971, however, it and the Phillips group agreed to share a wildcat in 1/6.

The first sales agreement for Ekofisk gas was signed in Oslo on 22 January 1972 with a buyer consortium headed by West Germany’s Ruhrgas. It had come out ahead in the negotiations through its willingness to meet the Phillips demands for price escalation.

Phillips hired its first operator personnel for Ekofisk on 12 February 1972.

Finding a permanent solution for bringing oil and gas produced from Ekofisk to market was a crucial issue.

The Ekofisk tank was ready for tow-out to the field one year behind schedule.

A helicopter en route from Gulftide to the Forus heliport outside Stavanger on 9 July 1973 never reached its destination. Four of the 17 people on board lost their lives.

The first oil crisis erupted as a result of the Yom Kippur war.

Egil Berle, one of the first operators employed by Phillips in Norway, played a central role in the formation of the first company or “yellow” union on Ekofisk.

Crude oil began to flow from the first fixed installation on the Norwegian continental shelf in April 1974. The facility in question was Ekofisk 2/4 A, part of the phase II development.

Developing the Greater Ekofisk Area progressed largely as planned, but some things were bound to go wrong with a project on this scale. Several incidents disrupted positioning of Ekofisk 2/4 P.

HM King Olav V of Norway visited Ekofisk for the first time on 24 September 1974.

The Ekofisk tank was originally commissioned and planned to store crude oil at times when offshore loading into shuttle tankers was prevented by bad weather.

The official opening of the Teesside terminal for the oil pipeline from Ekofisk took place on 21 October 1975, four days after crude began the 345-kilometre journey from the field to the UK.

A riser on the Ekofisk 2/4 A production platform caught fire on 1 November 1975 as a result of corrosion damage. Three people died while being evacuated because of the blaze when their rescue capsule fell during lowering.

Dave Taylor from Hull in England was a Crane Operator on Ekofisk Alpha 2/4 A when the fire occurred on the platform November 1st, 1975. He was 27 years at that time. Here is his story from the tragic accident when three men died:

The Phillips head office in Norway was located in Oslo until 1976, and responsibility for all exploration activity in Norway, Sweden and Denmark rested with its CEO.

Phillips had 12 employees in Norway in 1966, including eight in Oslo and four in Stavanger. Some expansion occurred over the next few years, but a marked leap did not come until 1973.

The “abandon platform” alarm sounded on Ekofisk 2/4 B – the Bravo installation – at 22.00 on Friday 22 April 1977. An uncontrolled escape of oil and gas had begun in well B-14. Large quantities of oil and gas spurted five-six metres into the air before falling into the sea. What should not have happened had occurred. The question was how this could be possible.

The gas pipelines from Ekofisk to Emden in West Germany became operational on 8 September 1977 – four years after the sales agreement with Europe’s four largest gas distributors was signed.

Twelve people were killed when a Sikorsky S-16N from Germany’s Wiking Helikopter Service flew straight into the sea 30 nautical miles from the Ekofisk Complex.

7/11 A ble installert i 1975 og produksjonen startet i 1977. Borerigg med utstyr ble fjernet i oktober 1997. Plattformen ble stengt og fraflyttet i 1998.

Six hundred Norwegian workers in the Brownaker joint venture between Brown & Root and Norway’s Aker group downed tools on 20 May 1978.

The Tor 2/4 E facility is a combined drilling, production and accommodation platform in 70 metres of water, located 13 kilometres north-east of the Ekofisk Complex.

The Albuskjell 2/4 F platform was very similar to Albuskjell 1/6 A, combining drilling, production and accommodation. It stood in 71 metres of water 13 kilometres west of the Ekofisk Complex and roughly eight from 1/6 A. A separate flare stack was linked by a bridge.

Providing en suite cabins on the new hotel platform at the Ekofisk Complex made it practical for women to work offshore as well. Norway’s Equal Opportunities Act helped to open to way for this.

A global oil crisis struck as a result of the Iranian revolution, when the pro-US Shah was overthrown by Muslim cleric Ayatollah Khomeini. The latter became Iran’s leader on 11 February 1979.

Only crude oil reception was fully functional at the Teesside pipeline terminal in the UK at first, with the natural gas liquid (NGL) section constantly delayed by labour disputes.

The Eldfisk reservoir lies in 68 metres of water about 16 kilometres south of the Ekofisk Complex.

The Eldfisk 2/7 B platform, which combined drilling, production and accommodation and had a separate flare stack, began producing on 28 October 1979 and shut down in 1998.

The Edda reservoir lies in block 2/7 in the Norwegian North Sea, 12 kilometres south-west of the Ekofisk Complex. Its 2/7 C platform was installed in 1976 and came on stream in 1979.

”Mayday, Mayday, Alexander Kie...” Baste Fanebust, shipping coordinator at the Ekofisk Complex, was one of those who picked up this SOS at 18.30 on 27 March 1980. The Alexander L Kielland flotel (accommodation rig) was in the process of capsizing.

At the memorial in Førresfjorden Per Priest said: There is not 123, but one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one , and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one , and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one, and one.

The Henrik Ibsen was towed out to Ekofisk on 18 April 1976. This Pentagone-type unit, with five support columns tied together by braces, had been designed for drilling but was now to provide accommodation on the field.

The commission of inquiry into the wreck of the Alexander L Kielland flotel submitted its report on 4 April 1981. It was sharply critical of most of those who had been involved with this unit ever since it lay on the drawing board.

The first water was injected into well B-16 on Ekofisk 2/4 B at 03.45 on 10 April 1981. That marked the start of the waterflooding project on this field.

The honour of being the first couple to marry on the field fell to Marie Grøntvedt, nurse on Ekofisk 2/4 H, and Carl Fredrik Larsen, an operator on 2/4 T. Both worked for Phillips.

Phillips stationed a dedicated search and rescue (SAR) helicopter on Ekofisk in October 1981 as part of its permanent emergency response measures on the field.

The Valhall field began oil production, with its output piped to the Ekofisk 2/4 G riser platform for onward transport to Teesside.

Ellen Boyer became Norway’s first female drilling supervisor on 7 March 1983 – the day before International Women’s Day – when she was appointed to this post on Ekofisk 2/4 B.

Initial water injection into the Ekofisk reservoir had begun in 1981 to measure its effect on the recovery factor for oil and gas. A preliminary study was also initiated to arrive at a realistic cost for implementing a large-scale waterflood project compared with its potential benefits.

The Phillips group and the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy (MPE) reached agreement on changes to taxation and other conditions for waterflooding on Ekofisk.

Norpipe 36/22 A was one of two booster platforms installed on the oil pipeline from Ekofisk to Teesside in the UK.

Randi Rostrup arrived on Albuskjell 2/4 F as the first female welder to work in the North Sea.

“I was away from the complex for several years, on the outlying platforms,” Steinar Undheim later told Ragna Ervik in an interview.

The solid position of the Ekofisk field in the North Sea prompted aggressive share speculators T Boone Pickens and Carl C Ichans to identify Phillips in the early 1980s as an attractive target. But they miscalculated the company’s strength and supporters.

Offshore workers have limited opportunities to exercise during their working or leisure hours. Some get enough physical activity from the work they do, while others use the gym.

Ekofisk has become a hub for transporting gas from other fields as well as Phillips’ own production.

The world was shaken by a fresh oil crisis in 1986 when crude prices fell to USD 10 per barrel.

A moderate gale was blowing from the north-west, with rain clouds overhead, when Broken Chain, the monument to the Alexander L Kielland disaster, was unveiled on 20 March 1986.

Phillips Petroleum had applied to the Norwegian government on 29 October 1962 for a sole concession covering Norway’s continental shelf. The authorities promised on 17 July 1963 to consider this.

A new cycle for offshore tours was adopted for Phillips employees.

Two platforms equipped with powerful pumps were originally installed along the oil pipeline from Ekofisk to Teesside to boost flow.

Ever since the permanent platforms were installed on Ekofisk, gas has been injected in the formation from the 2/4 C platform to help slow the decline in reservoir pressure.

Ten wells had to be drilled before the Ekofisk 2/4 K platform could become operational and start waterflooding.

Seabed subsidence at the Ekofisk Complex was detected in 1984 when rings in the concrete breakwater around the tank seen to be above the waterline in older photos were now submerged.

Phase II, the first expansion of the waterflood project, aimed to exploit surplus injection capacity on the 2/4 K platform for the lower part of the Ekofisk formation. Waterflooding would also be extended southwards in the underlying Tor structure.

Gas and condensate from the Tommeliten field began to flow through a pipeline to Edda 2/7 C on 3 October 1988. Based on subsea wells, this was a pioneering development for operator Statoil.

The first helicopter in Stavanger arrived during the spring of 1965, when Norway’s Helikopter Service established a base for such machines at Stavanger Airport Sola.

The eastern section of the new breakwater around the Ekofisk tank was in position on the seabed on 24 June 1989, and the circle was virtually complete.

On 25 October 1989, it would be 20 years since Phillips Petroleum Company Norway discovered oil in the Ekofisk field. This anniversary had to be commemorated.

A mechanic lost his life on 4 May 1990 during work on completing the 2/4 W module in the Ekofisk Complex, when a pig was to be pumped through a water pipeline from 2/4 K.

Two workers were dismissed on 3 July 1990 after they had failed to obey orders from the offshore field manager not to obstruct activity on the helideck and return to their work.

Phase II of the waterflooding project aimed to exploit surplus capacity on the 2/4 K platform in order to inject into the lower part of the Ekofisk (Danian) formation. Waterflooding would also be extended southwards in the underlying Tor (Cretaceous) structure.

Raging for two days, the hurricane which hit Ekofisk in December 1990 was the worst storm in living memory in these waters. Four platforms had to shut down and helicopter flights stopped.

A Bell 212 helicopter with three people on board crashed on 10 August 1991 while attempting to attach a 12-metre-long aluminium pole to the flare stack on 2/4 S.

Phillips set a record for crude oil piped to Teesside on 6 September 1991, which was also the date when waterflooding from the 2/4 K platform reached 500 000 barrels per day.

A romantic wave washed over Ekofisk on 29 February 1992 – the leap day when women are traditionally allowed to propose to a man.

The Team 66 consciousness-raising process in Phillips got going properly when a two-day quality seminar was arranged in the engineering department by its head, Lars Takla in March 1992.

Lower oil prices in the beginning of the 1990-ies made it necessary to cut costs through rationalising and optimising the Phillips organisation.

High waves during the hurricane of December 1990 caused damage to the tank and led to a temporary shutdown. The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) afterwards kept a close eye on conditions there.

In Norse mythology, Embla was the first woman. Where Phillips is concerned, this name belongs to its first remotely operated and unmanned platform.

Phillips responded on 1 July 1993 to the order it had received from the NPD to replace the Ekofisk tank.

Phillips submitted a plan for development and operation (PDO) of the Ekofisk II project to the government. It was expected to cost NOK 20 billion in 1994 value.

As part of the efficiency improvement process on Ekofisk, the first pilot project with remote platform operation began on West Ekofisk 2/4 D.

Extending production licence 018, which includes the Ekofisk field, and the Norpipe transport permits until 31 December 2028 was approved by the Storting (parliament) on 1 October 1994.

During the 1990s, when oil prices were relative low, operators on the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS) were being encouraged by the government to collaborate across fields.

Almost 50 tonnes of Biocide 2 leaked to the sea during the night of 28-29 September 1996 from the West Omicron rig, which was located in the Greater Ekofisk Area.

A new Phillips Petroleum campaign on preventive safety kicked off on 1 December 1996. Known as 4R, it represented a back-to-basics drive.

All Phillips employees got a little extra in 1997, when a results-based bonus was introduced to “motivate personnel by rewarding a good effort when the company met the targets it had set.”

Gas contracts renegotiated for another 30 years were to be signed at the same time as the Emden pipeline terminal in Germany could celebrate its 20th anniversary.

Phillips initiated a collaboration on energy issues with Bellona in 1998. That made it one of several corporate partners and sponsors of this Norwegian environmental foundation’s B7 programme for cleaner energy.

The shutdown of oil and gas output from the old platforms in the Greater Ekofisk Area which were being phased out began at 01.00 on 6 August 1998. Several of these facilities were being replaced by two new installations set to produce for many years to come.

Oil and gas production is the second largest source of Norwegian greenhouse gas emissions, after the transport sector ¬– road vehicles and so forth.

Marit Arnstad, minister of petroleum and energy, unveiled a stone plaque outside the control room on Ekofisk 2/4 J on 15 September 1998 to mark that the Ekofisk II development was on stream.

“Strange noises came from the machinery over our heads. It sounded as if the engine was cutting out,” offshore installation manager Arne J Johansen told Oslo daily Aftenposten.

The Ekofisk Committee, which had been the first union on the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS) in its day, joined the Norwegian Oil and Petrochemical Workers Union (Nopef) at the end of 1998.

Oil prices fell in 1998 to their lowest level since the early 1970s, and were at times below USD 10 per barrel.

The network of seabed flowlines in the Greater Ekofisk Area had a collective length of more than 100 kilometres. A first-ever leak in one of these pipes was discovered on 14 April 1999.
This occurred in 73 metres of water about 200 metres north-east of the Ekofisk Complex, where gas bubbled to the surface in an area about 40 metres in diameter.

Holes in the smallest pipes can have big consequences, as they found on Ekofisk in April 1999 when a leak in one of 3 600 small tubes in a gas cooler halted all production from 2/4 J.

Production from Edda 2/7 C, Albuskjell 1/6 A and 2/4 F, and Cod 7/11 A ended in 1998. These platforms were converted to a cold phase and waited to be removed.

All communication in the North Sea during the early years was by radio. Satellite transmission came later and, from June 1999, much of the traffic transferred to fibreoptic cable.

After 20 years of production, some of the offshore installations in the Greater Ekofisk Area were starting to become redundant by the 1990s. That reflected the impact of seabed subsidence, the Ekofisk II redevelopment and the fact that satellite fields were approaching the end of their economic lives.

After 20 years of production, some of the offshore installations in the Greater Ekofisk Area were starting to become redundant by the 1990s. That reflected the impact of seabed subsidence, the Ekofisk II redevelopment and the fact that satellite fields were approaching the end of their economic lives. The Phillips group accordingly established the Ekofisk I cessation project in 1994, which began work on an impact assessment and plan for the unwanted Ekofisk I facilities. These were owned wholly or partly by the Phillips group, A/S Norske Shell and Norpipe Oil A/S.

The Eldfisk 2/7 E platform became operational on 31 January 2000 as part of the waterflooding project at the southern end of the Greater Ekofisk Area.

The cessation plan for Ekofisk submitted to the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy in October 1999 proposed a gradual removal of 15 installations.

Various accidents on platforms and rigs were reported in the Greater Ekofisk Area (GEA) during 2001, with roughnecks injured on Eldfisk 2/4 B and West Ekofisk 2/4 D.

Phillips and BP joined forces in 2001 to improve their use of emergency response resources at the southern end of Norway’s North Sea sector.

An earthquake struck the Greater Ekofisk Area on 7 May 2001, when the 852 workers felt the installations swaying and various small loose objects fell down. No personal injuries were reported.

ConocoPhillips launched a major commitment to integrated operations in 2002 when it established an onshore drilling centre (ODC) at its office in Tananger outside Stavanger.

The Phillips group entered into an agreement in May 2002 with Rogaland Research and the Stavanger University College (HiS) to learn more about how Ekofisk could yield more petroleum.

ConocoPhillips was created on 30 August 2002 through the merger of former US oil firms Phillips Petroleum Company and Conoco Inc. This international energy enterprise was headquartered at Conoco’s former head office in Houston, Texas.

After roughly 30 years on stream, Ekofisk was still responsible for about 10 per cent of oil production from the Norwegian continental shelf in 2003. But the Phillips group had no plans to lower its sights as a petroleum producer on the field. In fact, the opposite was more the case.

Workers on Ekofisk got more free time in the autumn of 2003. Employees would now spend two weeks at work offshore and could then spend no less than four weeks at home.

A new onshore operations centre (OOC) for the Greater Ekofisk Area (GEA) was opened on 15 December 2004 by Jim Mulva, group CEO of ConocoPhillips,

ConocoPhillips published its first report on sustainable development in May 2005 for internal use in both Norway and the UK and towards external players.

A full alarm was sounded at the Ekofisk Complex on the morning of 3 June 2005, when a supply ship collided with a platform and 440 oil workers prepared to take to the lifeboats.

ConocoPhillips decided in August 2005 to install recovery plants for volatile organic compounds (VOCs) at facilities related to the Norwegian and British continental shelves.

Petroleum has been very much a male-dominated industry, but Ekofisk 2/4 K-B found itself with a larger proportion of women than usual on the Norwegian continental shelf in 2005.

A new method for treating produced water before discharging it to the sea was introduced by ConocoPhillips in 2006. Known as CTour, this was intended to remove dissolved oil and other components.

The Ekofisk 2/4 M platform – part of the Ekofisk Growth project – came on stream on 23 October 2005 from five predrilled wells. Petroleum and energy minister Odd Roger Enoksen undertook the official opening on 9 January 2006.

A mechanic had to be hospitalised after being hit by a 390-kilogram exhaust gas cooler on 13 January 2006, the third case of a dropped object on Ekofisk in the space of a week.

The first field to have its lighter structures removed as part of the cessation project was Edda, 13 kilometres south-west of Ekofisk, and involved the flare stack, bridge and bridge support.

A number of glaring headlines about offshore helicopters which had suffered problems appeared in Norwegian media during the autumn of 2006.

Four removal projects were pursued with light structures in the GEA during the summer of 2007, starting in June with the removal of flare stack, bridge and bridge supports from Albuskjell 1/6 A.

The tail end of Hurricane Noel, which had caused massive damage and cost 163 lives in the Caribbean, was heading for the North Sea in early November 2007.

A long-standing quarrel between the offshore workforce and the ConocoPhillips management was finally laid to rest in March 2008, when sharing of sleeping quarters ended on Ekofisk.

Seventeen people had to be sent ashore from Ekofisk in mid-November 2008 after going down with upset stomachs and diarrhoea on the Port Rigmar flotel.

The 5 000-tonne multipurpose vessel Big Orange XVIII ran into Ekofisk 2/4 W on 8 June 2009, a fine summer night with a full moon, light breeze, a temperature of 10°C and cloudy skies.

All air traffic was halted across northern Europe for several days in April 2010 because of ash blown across from the Eyafjallajökull volcanic eruption in Iceland.

The control centre at Tananger outside Stavanger initiated water injection from the Ekofisk 2/4 VA (Victor Alpha) subsea installation on 10 May 2010.

A total of 4 000 sensors spread at 50-metre intervals along 240 kilometres of cable were installed on the seabed over the Ekofisk field from March-September 2010.

The onshore logistics centre (OLC) at the ConocoPhillips offices in Tananger began round-the-clock logistical coordination of vessels sailing to and from Ekofisk during September 2010.

21 January 2011: Supply ship collides with 2/4 J
Despite the introduction of round-the-clock logistical coordination from land, supply ships continued to collide with platforms in the Greater Ekofisk Area.

The oil industry has always been male-dominated, and it is well-known that many men working offshore over the years have had pin-ups on the walls and a crude way of talking.

Removal activity on Ekofisk in the 2011 summer season began as early as mid-April, when the Thialf crane vessel set off for the field from the Åmøy Fjord near Stavanger.

The tower on Ekofisk 2/4 H picked up a Mayday call on the afternoon of 1 May from a British fishing boat where a person had fallen overboard.

Temporary living quarters were needed on Ekofisk while the new 2/4 L hotel and field centre platform was under construction to replace the old accommodation installation. The brand-new Haven accommodation jack-up was chartered to provide the necessary bed capacity at a time when both Ekofisk and Eldfisk were undergoing radical renewal.

Improving the recovery factor from Ekofisk, Norway’s largest field, was a priority for ConocoPhillips. This meant getting out a larger proportion of the resources originally in place.

On 9 June 2011, the same day ConocoPhillips celebrated 40 years of Ekofisk production, the Storting (parliament) unanimously approved the plan for development and operation (PDO) of the Ekofisk South and Eldfisk II projects.

When the alarm sounds, not many minutes pass before Ekofisk’s search and rescue (SAR) helicopter is in the air. It was certainly quick off the mark when a gas leak was reported on Britain’s Elgin field in March 2012.

The first in a series of “intelligent” production wells for Ekofisk was brought on stream in the spring of 2012. These earn their designation because different downhole zones can be opened and closed from the surface by using known technology in a new way. Both production and water injection can thereby be optimised.

Crane vessels Balder and Thialf were once again in action with platform removal in the Greater Ekofisk Area during the 2012 summer season.

A new waste heat recovery unit (WHRU) was installed on Eldfisk 2/7 E during 2013 in order to deliver electricity to the platforms in the Eldfisk Complex.

ConocoPhillips was named operator of the year for 2013 on the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS) by the Rystad Energy consultancy on the basis of its efforts to counter declining production.

The lower section of the Albuskjell 1/6 A jacket had the honour of completing the summer season’s lifting campaign in September 2013. This meant the last of nine agreed installations had been taken to land.

“If we are to maintain activity on the continental shelf in coming years, we must ensure that the mature areas and existing infrastructure are exploited.” This comment was made by petroleum and energy minister Tord Lien when he performed the official inauguration of the new Ekofisk 2/4 Z wellhead platform on 29 October 2013.

ConocoPhillips was an early adopter of telemedicine – the remote diagnosis and treatment of patients by means of telecommunications technology.

A Gullkronen (gold crown) prize as the best project developer on the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS) for 2014 was awarded to ConocoPhillips by consultancy Rystad Energy.

The new Ekofisk 2/4 L accommodation and field centre platform was enthusiastically welcomed when it replaced the 2/4 H and 2/4 Q installations dating from the 1970s.

Helicopter flights to and from oil installations on the continental shelf (NCS) are a necessary part of Norway’s offshore operations.

Petroleum and energy minister Kåre Fostervoll officially inaugurated the Eldfisk 2/7 S platform on 24 April 2015 – the third such ceremony in the Greater Ekofisk Area in 17 months!

Dramatic conditions were experienced at the southern end of the Norwegian continental shelf, close to Ekofisk and Valhall, just before New Year’s Eve in 2015.

The very first production well brought on stream from a fixed installation on the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS) was A-13 on Ekofisk 2/4 A. It was permanently plugged in the spring of 2016, after 42 years.

Changes were made in the mid-2010s to the two oldest installations in the Eldfisk Complex – 2/7 A and 2/7 FTP – as part of the Eldfisk II development.

The largest annual number of permanent pluggings in the Greater Ekofisk Area (GEA) was achieved in 2016, when this job was conducted on 22 wells.

A contract for removing four platforms from Ekofisk by the end of 2022 was awarded by ConocoPhillips in early 2017 to Heerema Marine Contractors (HMC) with AF Gruppen as its subcontractor.

The greatest-ever oil bonanza, with oil prices hitting USD 130 per barrel, came to an abrupt end in 2014, when the cost of a barrel of crude slumped to less than USD 50 from June to December. And the bottom had still not been reached – this was only the start of a new oil crisis which lasted several years. What effect did this have on ConocoPhillips’ financial position off Norway?

ConocoPhillips was named best operator on the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS) in the 2018 Gullkronen (Gold Crown) awards for its work with the Ekofisk field. This is one of nine categories in the awards, which were presented by consultancy Rystad Energy in early February. ConocoPhillips was also nominated for operating Eldfisk.

Water has been injected into the Ekofisk reservoir through dedicated wells since the 1980s to improve recovery of oil and gas. Injection has taken place both from platforms and subsea.
However, a large and heavy plant is needed to treat the seawater used for such waterflooding. That requires a lot of space and energy, and is thereby expensive.

Injection water from subsea installation Ekofisk VC (Victor Charlie) began to be pumped down well VC-03 on 28 September 2018. Well number two came on line just under a week later. The aim of this facility – an extension to the Ekofisk South project – was to increase waterflooding on the southern flank of the Ekofisk reservoir in order to maintain oil and gas production.

ConocoPhillips submitted a plan for development and operation (PDO) of the Tor II project on 1 July 2019. This marked the redevelopment of a field shut down since 1 January 2016.