Eyewitness to the 1969 discoveryPhillips announces giant discovery

Where does the Ekofisk name come from?

person by the Norwegian Petroleum Museum
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.
— The Ekofish (Ekofisken)
© Norsk Oljemuseum

That was done in order to group the blocks geographically and make it easier to identify them. At the same time, the intention was to name possible discoveries after fish.

This scheme had been applied to Area C, where Cod represented an easy choice. Given that Ekofisk lay in Area E, however, the challenge was to find a fish name beginning with that letter.

Eel had already been used for a structure in block 2/7. Earl Walters at the Phillips office in London, came up with Ekofisk – without anyone objecting, even though the proper spellings should have been Echofish in English or Ekkofisk in Norwegian.

 

Eyewitness to the 1969 discoveryPhillips announces giant discovery
Published 23. May 2019   •   Updated 2. October 2019
© Norsk Oljemuseum
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