Who operates the Ivar Aasen field?

Ivar Aasen is operated by Aker BP ASA, in partnership with Equinor Energy AS, DNO Norge AS, OKEA ASA and others.

How much does Ivar Aasen produce?

14,519 barrels of oil equivalent per day as of May 2026 — 0.3% of Norwegian Continental Shelf output, ranking 51 of 94 producing fields.

When did Ivar Aasen start producing?

First production was reported in 2016, 12 years after discovery well 16/1-7 proved the field in 2004.

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.

Ivar Aasen field

Ivar Aasen is producing 14,519 barrels of oil equivalent a day — 0.3% of everything the Norwegian Continental Shelf produced in May 2026, ranking 51 of the 94 fields in production.

Production

14,519 boe/d

Share of NCS

0.3%

Operator

Aker BP ASA

First oil

2016

What it produces

In May 2026 the field delivered 14,519 barrels of oil equivalent a day, classified by the directorate as oil — roughly 76% oil and 17% gas by energy content. Output has moved down 19.6% over the past twelve months, and the directorate's profile for the field is declining. The field's best year was 2018, averaging 67,368 boe/d — today it runs at 22% of that.

Since 2016, Ivar Aasen has produced roughly 149 million barrels of oil equivalent in total. The directorate's estimate of recoverable resources is 197 million boe, of which about 76% has now been recovered; 52 million boe remained as of 31.12.2025.

Timeline

2004
Proven by exploration well 16/1-7
2016
First production reported
2016
Ivar Aasen (jacket 4 legs) enters service
2018
Best year to date — 67,368 boe/d
2022
Power from shore, fed from Kårstø

Production by year, 2016–2026

OilGasNGL/condensateboe/d

Full table, year by year

Year	Oil	Gas	NGL	Total boe/d
2016	395	70	0	464
2017	39,428	10,005	2,989	52,422
2018	52,973	11,008	3,386	67,368
2019	53,858	6,700	2,457	63,015
2020	47,798	7,576	2,817	58,190
2021	38,202	7,069	2,424	47,695
2022	27,132	5,027	2,112	34,271
2023	26,067	5,784	2,338	34,189
2024	18,233	5,345	2,109	25,686
2025	14,963	1,938	1,080	17,981
2026	13,515	2,823	1,200	17,538

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 16/1-7 in 2004. The directorate's wellbore register lists 56 wellbores on Ivar Aasen: 13 exploration and 43 development. The deepest reaches 7,077 metres measured depth. Water depth at the field's installations is 113 metres.

How it reaches market

No export pipeline is registered from Ivar Aasen's own installations — its production is either offloaded to shuttle tankers or routed through a host facility on a neighbouring field.

The field has run on power from shore — fed from Kårstø since 2022 — rather than on gas turbines offshore.

Installations on Ivar Aasen

Ivar AasenJacket 4 Legs2016

The first of them entered service in 2016.

Licence partners

Equinor Energy AS41.47%
Aker BP ASA36.17%
DNO Norge AS12.32%
OKEA ASA9.24%
M Vest Energy AS0.80%

The field sits in blocks 16/1, under production licences PL 001 B, PL 242, PL 338 BS, PL 457 BS.

Questions people ask

Who operates the Ivar Aasen field?: Ivar Aasen is operated by Aker BP ASA, in partnership with Equinor Energy AS, DNO Norge AS, OKEA ASA and others.
How much does Ivar Aasen produce?: 14,519 barrels of oil equivalent per day as of May 2026 — 0.3% of Norwegian Continental Shelf output, ranking 51 of 94 producing fields.
When did Ivar Aasen start producing?: First production was reported in 2016, 12 years after discovery well 16/1-7 proved the field in 2004.

See it live

Ivar Aasen 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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