First Oil Produced from Ekofisk South (Norway)

ConocoPhillips today announced first oil production from the Ekofisk South development project in the Norwegian North Sea on Oct. 25.

“The Ekofisk South project startup represents an important milestone for ConocoPhillips,” said Matt Fox, executive vice president, Exploration and Production. “This is the first of several new major project startups that will contribute to the company’s growth over the next few years. In Norway, a second project, Eldfisk II, is scheduled to start up by early 2015. These projects will increase ultimate resource recoveries and extend the field life of this premier legacy asset for years to come.”

Ekofisk South, along with Eldfisk II and other development projects offshore Norway, will add approximately 60,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day of net high-margin production to the company’s production volumes by 2017.

The Ekofisk South project includes the planned drilling of 35 new production wells and eight water injection wells. One well is currently producing. Drilling is underway on additional wells and production is expected to ramp up over the next four years as new wells are brought on line.

The Greater Ekofisk Area, located approximately 200 miles (300 km) offshore Stavanger, comprises four producing fields: Ekofisk, Eldfisk, Embla and Tor. Crude oil from Greater Ekofisk’s producing fields is exported via pipeline to Teesside, England, and natural gas flows via pipeline to Emden, Germany.

ConocoPhillips (35.1%) operates the Greater Ekofisk Area. The other Ekofisk co-venturers are Total (39.9%), Eni (12.4%), Statoil (7.6%) and Petoro (5.0%).