Who operates the Heidrun field?

Heidrun is operated by Equinor Energy AS, in partnership with Petoro AS, ConocoPhillips Skandinavia AS, Vår Energi ASA.

How much does Heidrun produce?

65,277 barrels of oil equivalent per day as of May 2026 — 1.5% of Norwegian Continental Shelf output, ranking 15 of 94 producing fields.

When did Heidrun start producing?

First production was reported in 1995, 10 years after discovery well 6507/7-2 proved the field in 1985.

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.

Heidrun field

Heidrun is producing 65,277 barrels of oil equivalent a day — 1.5% of everything the Norwegian Continental Shelf produced in May 2026, ranking 15 of the 94 fields in production.

Production

65,277 boe/d

Share of NCS

1.5%

Operator

Equinor Energy AS

First oil

1995

What it produces

In May 2026 the field delivered 65,277 barrels of oil equivalent a day, classified by the directorate as oil/gas — roughly 50% oil and 47% gas by energy content. Output has moved down 4.5% over the past twelve months, and the directorate's profile for the field is mature. The field's best year was 1997, averaging 237,519 boe/d — today it runs at 27% of that.

Since 1995, Heidrun has produced roughly 1,355 million barrels of oil equivalent in total. The directorate's estimate of recoverable resources is 1,688 million boe, of which about 80% has now been recovered; 336 million boe remained as of 31.12.2025.

The story of Heidrun

Heidrun floats on the only concrete tension-leg platform ever built — a Condeep hull moored to the seabed by steel tethers, in water too deep for the concrete giants standing further south.

Timeline

1985
Proven by exploration well 6507/7-2
1995
On stream on the world’s only concrete TLP
1997
Best year to date — 237,519 boe/d
2014
Heidrun Stl-II (loading system) enters service
2015
Heidrun Fsu (fsu) enters service

Production by year, 1995–2026

OilGasNGL/condensateboe/d

Full table, year by year

Year	Oil	Gas	NGL	Total boe/d
1995	18,245	0	0	18,245
1996	209,482	0	0	209,482
1997	231,894	5,625	0	237,519
1998	201,460	9,833	0	211,293
1999	216,098	11,093	0	227,191
2000	182,007	10,568	0	192,574
2001	176,222	23,162	3,316	202,699
2002	174,595	19,606	1,934	196,136
2003	156,298	23,177	3,015	182,489
2004	147,504	23,023	2,760	173,286
2005	140,251	18,878	1,480	160,610
2006	137,872	19,806	1,766	159,443
2007	106,896	15,809	1,181	123,884
2008	93,838	17,473	932	112,242
2009	78,613	15,089	978	94,679
2010	55,318	14,649	623	70,590
2011	63,845	13,377	207	77,429
2012	54,664	11,480	84	66,228
2013	59,665	13,489	444	73,598
2014	50,803	12,299	111	63,213
2015	53,189	13,213	21	66,423
2016	58,422	13,765	546	72,733
2017	53,678	25,042	2,295	81,014
2018	49,082	21,442	2,095	72,619
2019	52,153	25,269	2,465	79,887
2020	48,917	26,482	2,809	78,207
2021	55,080	28,032	3,327	86,439
2022	46,574	32,924	3,070	82,569
2023	42,381	30,295	2,757	75,433
2024	38,086	28,501	3,191	69,778
2025	34,155	27,909	2,144	64,207
2026	32,355	29,744	2,152	64,251

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 6507/7-2 in 1985. The directorate's wellbore register lists 211 wellbores on Heidrun: 13 exploration and 198 development. The deepest reaches 5,658 metres measured depth. Water depth at the field's installations is 327 to 363.4 metres.

How it reaches market

Heidrun's production leaves the field by pipeline:

Haltenpipegas → Tjeldbergodden
Heidrun Gasstransportgas → Norne/Heidrun T

Installations on Heidrun

HeidrunTlp Concrete1995
Heidrun FsuFsu2015
Heidrun Stl-IILoading System2014

The first of them entered service in 1995. The field also has 11 subsea structures — wellheads and templates on the seabed — which are drawn individually on the map.

Licence partners

Petoro AS36.40%
Equinor Energy AS34.44%
ConocoPhillips Skandinavia AS23.99%
Vår Energi ASA5.18%

The field sits in blocks 6507/7, 6507/8, under production licences PL 095, PL 124.

Questions people ask

Who operates the Heidrun field?: Heidrun is operated by Equinor Energy AS, in partnership with Petoro AS, ConocoPhillips Skandinavia AS, Vår Energi ASA.
How much does Heidrun produce?: 65,277 barrels of oil equivalent per day as of May 2026 — 1.5% of Norwegian Continental Shelf output, ranking 15 of 94 producing fields.
When did Heidrun start producing?: First production was reported in 1995, 10 years after discovery well 6507/7-2 proved the field in 1985.

See it live

Heidrun 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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