First oil gushes out of $1.2 billion project in North Sea

ConocoPhillips Skandinavia, a subsidiary of the U.S. energy giant ConocoPhillips, has brought on stream an oil project, which has been tied to one of the fields in the Greater Ekofisk Area in the southern part of the North Sea.

After a plan for development and operation (PDO) of the Eldfisk North project was handed over to the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy in May 2022, the PDO was approved in December 2022. The Norwegian Offshore Directorate (NOD) gave the green light for the start-up of production from the project in February 2024 to ConocoPhillips as the operator of the Greater Ekofisk Area together with its license partners: TotalEnergies EP Norge, Vår Energi, Equinor, and Petoro.

According to TotalEnergies, the first oil production from the Eldfisk North project has now been achieved earlier than expected. The project’s greenhouse gas emissions intensity is estimated at seven kg CO2 per barrel of oil equivalent. This North Sea oil project is said to have created approximately 4,000 to 4,500 jobs with more than 80% of the total contract value awarded to Norwegian businesses.

Jean-Luc Guiziou, Senior Vice President Europe for Exploration & Production at TotalEnergies, commented: “This is a nice example of a short cycle project which is delivered safely and ahead of plan. The Eldfisk North project is indeed unlocking additional resources whilst benefitting from the use of available capacities in the existing infrastructure in the Greater Ekofisk Area. With a low break-even and greenhouse gas emissions below 10 kg/boe, the Eldfisk North project fits nicely in TotalEnergies portfolio.”

With three six-well subsea templates located about seven kilometers from the Eldfisk Complex, the Eldfisk North project development comprises up to 14 wells, whereof nine are producers and five will inject water into the reservoir. The project is expected to produce 15,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day at peak and use the available capacity of the Eldfisk facilities for processing and transportation.

The total capital investment associated with the project amounts to nearly NOK 13 billion or $1.2 billion. Discovered in 1970 in block 2/7, about 16 kilometers south of Ekofisk, Eldfisk is said to be the second-largest of three producing fields in the Greater Ekofisk Area and one of the largest on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS). 

The Greater Ekofisk Area consists of three producing fields – Ekofisk, Eldfisk, and Embla – and the production from these fields is transported via the Ekofisk Complex to the receiving terminals in Emden, Germany (gas) and Teesside, UK (oil).