Who operates the Gullfaks Sør field?

Gullfaks Sør is operated by Equinor Energy AS, in partnership with Petoro AS, OMV Norge AS.

How much does Gullfaks Sør produce?

125,889 barrels of oil equivalent per day as of May 2026 — 3.0% of Norwegian Continental Shelf output, ranking 6 of 94 producing fields.

When did Gullfaks Sør start producing?

First production was reported in 1998, 20 years after discovery well 34/10-2 proved the field in 1978.

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.

Gullfaks Sør field

Gullfaks Sør is producing 125,889 barrels of oil equivalent a day — 3.0% of everything the Norwegian Continental Shelf produced in May 2026, ranking 6 of the 94 fields in production.

Production

125,889 boe/d

Share of NCS

3.0%

Operator

Equinor Energy AS

First oil

1998

What it produces

In May 2026 the field delivered 125,889 barrels of oil equivalent a day, classified by the directorate as oil/gas — roughly 15% oil and 74% gas by energy content. Output has moved up 2.1% over the past twelve months, and the directorate's profile for the field is mature. The field's best year was 2017, averaging 155,013 boe/d — today it runs at 81% of that.

Since 1998, Gullfaks Sør has produced roughly 1,147 million barrels of oil equivalent in total. The directorate's estimate of recoverable resources is 1,292 million boe, of which about 89% has now been recovered; 166 million boe remained as of 31.12.2025.

Timeline

1978
Proven by exploration well 34/10-2
1998
First production reported
2017
Best year to date — 155,013 boe/d

Production by year, 1998–2026

OilGasNGL/condensateboe/d

Full table, year by year

Year	Oil	Gas	NGL	Condensate	Total boe/d
1998	1,189	0	0	0	1,189
1999	38,034	0	0	0	38,034
2000	51,463	8,570	1,803	0	61,836
2001	66,143	10,325	2,607	0	79,074
2002	64,264	32,512	7,885	0	104,660
2003	58,233	43,820	9,972	0	112,024
2004	71,676	55,228	12,732	0	139,635
2005	67,027	65,542	14,208	0	146,777
2006	50,541	62,673	16,660	0	129,873
2007	56,530	69,678	17,518	0	143,725
2008	53,413	64,247	15,090	0	132,751
2009	51,827	45,445	14,138	0	111,410
2010	35,934	40,259	12,771	38	89,001
2011	27,466	27,727	4,824	0	60,017
2012	32,345	41,856	11,439	2	85,641
2013	41,036	47,349	13,287	68	101,741
2014	38,486	58,294	16,896	264	113,940
2015	31,730	54,555	16,110	494	102,887
2016	29,127	74,368	21,778	0	125,272
2017	25,592	101,940	27,480	0	155,013
2018	20,735	103,832	26,368	0	150,935
2019	25,220	84,572	18,915	0	128,707
2020	21,065	83,801	21,200	0	126,066
2021	22,791	99,015	20,625	0	142,431
2022	22,365	95,990	14,369	0	132,723
2023	23,940	86,659	13,791	0	124,388
2024	21,554	79,168	13,454	0	114,176
2025	20,970	98,560	15,541	0	135,071
2026	19,719	90,434	13,824	0	123,977

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 34/10-2 in 1978. The directorate's wellbore register lists 169 wellbores on Gullfaks Sør: 32 exploration and 136 development, plus 1 others. The deepest reaches 9,910 metres measured depth. Water depth at the field's installations is 135 to 140 metres.

Installations on Gullfaks Sør

The field also has 16 subsea structures — wellheads and templates on the seabed — which are drawn individually on the map.

Licence partners

Equinor Energy AS51.00%
Petoro AS30.00%
OMV Norge AS19.00%

The field sits in blocks 32/12, 33/12, 34/10, under production licences PL 152, PL 037 B, PL 037 E, PL 277, PL 050, PL 050 B, PL 050 D.

Questions people ask

Who operates the Gullfaks Sør field?: Gullfaks Sør is operated by Equinor Energy AS, in partnership with Petoro AS, OMV Norge AS.
How much does Gullfaks Sør produce?: 125,889 barrels of oil equivalent per day as of May 2026 — 3.0% of Norwegian Continental Shelf output, ranking 6 of 94 producing fields.
When did Gullfaks Sør start producing?: First production was reported in 1998, 20 years after discovery well 34/10-2 proved the field in 1978.

See it live

Gullfaks Sør 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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