Who operates the Kvitebjørn field?

Kvitebjørn is operated by Equinor Energy AS, in partnership with Petoro AS, DNO Norge AS, ORLEN Upstream Norway AS and others.

How much does Kvitebjørn produce?

42,434 barrels of oil equivalent per day as of May 2026 — 1.0% of Norwegian Continental Shelf output, ranking 24 of 94 producing fields.

When did Kvitebjørn start producing?

First production was reported in 2004, 10 years after discovery well 34/11-1 proved the field in 1994.

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.

Kvitebjørn field

Kvitebjørn is producing 42,434 barrels of oil equivalent a day — 1.0% of everything the Norwegian Continental Shelf produced in May 2026, ranking 24 of the 94 fields in production.

Production

42,434 boe/d

Share of NCS

1.0%

Operator

Equinor Energy AS

First oil

2004

What it produces

In May 2026 the field delivered 42,434 barrels of oil equivalent a day, classified by the directorate as gas/condensate — roughly 12% oil and 83% gas by energy content. Output has moved down 15.2% over the past twelve months, and the directorate's profile for the field is late life. The field's best year was 2012, averaging 178,659 boe/d — today it runs at 24% of that.

Since 2004, Kvitebjørn has produced roughly 911 million barrels of oil equivalent in total. The directorate's estimate of recoverable resources is 980 million boe, of which about 93% has now been recovered; 72 million boe remained as of 31.12.2025.

Timeline

1994
Proven by exploration well 34/11-1
2004
First production reported
2004
Kvitebjørn (jacket 4 legs) enters service
2012
Best year to date — 178,659 boe/d

Production by year, 2004–2026

OilGasNGL/condensateboe/d

Full table, year by year

Year	Oil	Gas	NGL	Total boe/d
2004	4,822	9,589	592	15,003
2005	37,688	74,794	10,163	122,645
2006	48,894	96,843	13,964	159,702
2007	9,452	18,657	2,405	30,513
2008	24,889	51,602	7,785	84,276
2009	40,475	87,552	13,927	141,953
2010	46,710	105,376	13,349	165,435
2011	45,282	112,319	14,279	171,880
2012	42,673	119,946	16,041	178,659
2013	36,231	118,322	17,073	171,625
2014	34,148	116,645	16,878	167,672
2015	32,943	117,565	11,578	162,085
2016	30,500	118,376	12,152	161,028
2017	22,295	105,278	10,704	138,278
2018	18,580	90,127	9,055	117,761
2019	13,617	77,809	7,540	98,966
2020	11,672	71,864	7,477	91,014
2021	10,293	59,946	5,833	76,073
2022	7,469	49,015	3,803	60,286
2023	7,468	45,062	4,463	56,992
2024	7,191	46,268	3,896	57,354
2025	5,746	39,705	2,302	47,753
2026	5,055	34,664	1,919	41,638

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 34/11-1 in 1994. The directorate's wellbore register lists 29 wellbores on Kvitebjørn: 2 exploration and 27 development. The deepest reaches 7,316 metres measured depth. Water depth at the field's installations is 190 metres.

How it reaches market

Kvitebjørn's production leaves the field by pipeline:

Kvitebjørn Gassrørgas → Kollsnes
Kvitebjørn Oljerørcondensate → Tor II Y

Installations on Kvitebjørn

KvitebjørnJacket 4 Legs2004

The first of them entered service in 2004.

Licence partners

Equinor Energy AS39.55%
Petoro AS30.00%
DNO Norge AS19.00%
ORLEN Upstream Norway AS6.45%
TotalEnergies EP Norge AS5.00%

The field sits in block 34/11, under production licence PL 193.

Questions people ask

Who operates the Kvitebjørn field?: Kvitebjørn is operated by Equinor Energy AS, in partnership with Petoro AS, DNO Norge AS, ORLEN Upstream Norway AS and others.
How much does Kvitebjørn produce?: 42,434 barrels of oil equivalent per day as of May 2026 — 1.0% of Norwegian Continental Shelf output, ranking 24 of 94 producing fields.
When did Kvitebjørn start producing?: First production was reported in 2004, 10 years after discovery well 34/11-1 proved the field in 1994.

See it live

Kvitebjørn 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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