Who operates the Aasta Hansteen field?

Aasta Hansteen is operated by Equinor Energy AS, in partnership with Harbour Energy Norge AS, OMV Norge AS, ConocoPhillips Skandinavia AS.

How much does Aasta Hansteen produce?

111,548 barrels of oil equivalent per day as of May 2026 — 2.6% of Norwegian Continental Shelf output, ranking 10 of 94 producing fields.

When did Aasta Hansteen start producing?

First production was reported in 2018, 21 years after discovery well 6707/10-1 proved the field in 1997.

What is the Norwegian Continental Shelf?

The Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS) is the seabed area where Norway holds sovereign rights over petroleum resources, covering the North Sea, the Norwegian Sea and the Barents Sea. It holds roughly 90 producing fields, and its output is the largest single source of Norway's export income.

What does NCS Live show?

Every in-service surface installation and subsea structure on the shelf, the offshore pipeline network, field outlines and seabed relief, with live vessel traffic and offshore helicopter flights on top of them. Optional layers add seismic survey activity, cold-water coral, wind and wave forecasts, and a counter for the value each field is producing today.

Where does the data come from?

Infrastructure, fields and production come from the Norwegian Offshore Directorate (Sokkeldirektoratet) FactPages under the NLOD licence. Vessel positions are AIS from BarentsWatch and Kystverket. Helicopter movements are derived from Avinor flight data. Coral observations come from the Institute of Marine Research and MAREANO, and export prices from Statistics Norway (SSB).

Is the vessel traffic real time?

Yes. Tankers and offshore support vessels are drawn from live AIS positions and refreshed continuously, with speed, course and self-reported destination. Helicopter positions are dead-reckoned estimates between known departures and arrivals, not surveillance.

Are the pipeline flows measured?

No. Pipeline thickness and the travelling flow animation are estimates, derived by accumulating monthly field production through the pipeline network. They are not metered throughput, and thickness is not pipe diameter.

Can I see how the shelf was built out?

Yes. The time machine replays the shelf from 1971, the year Ekofisk started producing, to today. Installations and pipelines appear in the year they entered service, with total production and the number of producing fields for each year.

Is NCS Live free to use?

Yes, free and with no account. It is a public visualisation of open data, built and designed by Smpl and Melvær&Co in Norway.

Aasta Hansteen field

Aasta Hansteen is producing 111,548 barrels of oil equivalent a day — 2.6% of everything the Norwegian Continental Shelf produced in May 2026, ranking 10 of the 94 fields in production.

Production

111,548 boe/d

Share of NCS

2.6%

Operator

Equinor Energy AS

First oil

2018

What it produces

In May 2026 the field delivered 111,548 barrels of oil equivalent a day, classified by the directorate as gas — almost entirely gas. Output has moved down 16.6% over the past twelve months, and the directorate's profile for the field is declining. The field's best year was 2021, averaging 156,679 boe/d — today it runs at 71% of that.

Since 2018, Aasta Hansteen has produced roughly 374 million barrels of oil equivalent in total. The directorate's estimate of recoverable resources is 469 million boe, of which about 80% has now been recovered; 113 million boe remained as of 31.12.2025.

The story of Aasta Hansteen

Aasta Hansteen stands in 1,300 metres of water — the deepest development on the shelf — on the first spar platform in Norway, a floating cylinder moored where no bottom-fixed structure could reach. Its gas opened the Polarled pipeline and with it a new corridor of the Norwegian Sea.

Timeline

1997
Proven by exploration well 6707/10-1
2018
On stream — the shelf’s deepest development, first spar
2021
Best year to date — 156,679 boe/d

Production by year, 2018–2026

GasNGL/condensateboe/d

Full table, year by year

Year	Gas	Condensate	Total boe/d
2018	471	5	476
2019	116,307	2,895	119,202
2020	150,366	3,294	153,660
2021	153,710	2,969	156,679
2022	153,194	3,189	156,382
2023	118,932	2,543	121,475
2024	142,593	2,908	145,501
2025	121,303	2,586	123,889
2026	112,745	1,820	114,565

Average daily rates per calendar year, from Sokkeldirektoratet's monthly production figures. The final year is the average through May 2026.

Discovery and drilling

The field was proven by exploration well 6707/10-1 in 1997. The directorate's wellbore register lists 12 wellbores on Aasta Hansteen: 4 exploration and 8 development. The deepest reaches 5,039 metres measured depth. Water depth at the field's installations is 1232 to 1315 metres.

Installations on Aasta Hansteen

Aasta Hansteen SparSpar2018

The first of them entered service in 2018. The field also has 5 subsea structures — wellheads and templates on the seabed — which are drawn individually on the map.

Licence partners

Equinor Energy AS51.00%
Harbour Energy Norge AS24.00%
OMV Norge AS15.00%
ConocoPhillips Skandinavia AS10.00%

The field sits in blocks 6706/12, 6707/10, under production licences PL 218.

Questions people ask

Who operates the Aasta Hansteen field?: Aasta Hansteen is operated by Equinor Energy AS, in partnership with Harbour Energy Norge AS, OMV Norge AS, ConocoPhillips Skandinavia AS.
How much does Aasta Hansteen produce?: 111,548 barrels of oil equivalent per day as of May 2026 — 2.6% of Norwegian Continental Shelf output, ranking 10 of 94 producing fields.
When did Aasta Hansteen start producing?: First production was reported in 2018, 21 years after discovery well 6707/10-1 proved the field in 1997.

See it live

Aasta Hansteen is drawn on the NCS Live map with its outline, its pipelines and the vessels working it in real time — and på norsk. The directorate's own record is on the SODIR FactPages.

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