Who operates the Sleipner Øst field?

Sleipner Øst is operated by Equinor Energy AS, in partnership with ORLEN Upstream Norway AS, Vår Energi ASA.

How much does Sleipner Øst produce?

932 barrels of oil equivalent per day as of May 2026 — 0.0% of Norwegian Continental Shelf output, ranking 88 of 94 producing fields.

When did Sleipner Øst start producing?

First production was reported in 1993, 12 years after discovery well 15/9-9 proved the field in 1981.

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.

Sleipner Øst field

Sleipner Øst is producing 932 barrels of oil equivalent a day — 0.0% of everything the Norwegian Continental Shelf produced in May 2026, ranking 88 of the 94 fields in production.

Production

932 boe/d

Share of NCS

0.0%

Operator

Equinor Energy AS

First oil

1993

What it produces

In May 2026 the field delivered 932 barrels of oil equivalent a day, classified by the directorate as gas/condensate — roughly 39% oil and 52% gas by energy content. Output has moved down 20.8% over the past twelve months, and the directorate's profile for the field is late life. The field's best year was 2002, averaging 288,527 boe/d — today it runs at 0% of that.

Since 1993, Sleipner Øst has produced roughly 1,575 million barrels of oil equivalent in total. The directorate's estimate of recoverable resources is 767 million boe; 0 million boe remained as of 31.12.2025.

The story of Sleipner Øst

Sleipner’s place in engineering history was made twice in two years. In August 1991 the first Sleipner A concrete substructure sprang a leak and sank during a ballast test in the Gandsfjord — the loss registered on seismographs and forced a redesign; its replacement was on stream two years later.

From 1996 Sleipner became the site of the world’s first industrial-scale offshore carbon storage: CO₂ separated from the gas stream is injected into the Utsira formation rather than vented, a million tonnes a year, three decades before carbon capture became policy.

Timeline

1981
Proven by exploration well 15/9-9
1991
The first Sleipner A substructure sinks in the Gandsfjord
1993
On stream with the rebuilt platform
1996
World-first offshore CO₂ storage begins
2002
Best year to date — 288,527 boe/d

Production by year, 1993–2026

OilGasNGL/condensateboe/d

Full table, year by year

Year	Oil	Gas	NGL	Condensate	Total boe/d
1993	0	14,367	5,159	7,582	27,108
1994	0	68,101	30,747	41,059	139,906
1995	0	89,532	42,887	54,600	187,019
1996	0	131,045	43,793	54,915	229,752
1997	0	129,255	37,689	46,522	213,466
1998	0	124,040	36,226	44,565	204,831
1999	0	139,061	38,024	45,437	222,522
2000	0	202,888	31,868	36,317	271,073
2001	0	200,612	31,385	32,344	264,342
2002	0	232,310	29,874	26,343	288,527
2003	0	228,036	18,665	17,489	264,191
2004	0	218,120	15,534	12,373	246,027
2005	0	246,800	13,883	10,460	271,143
2006	0	227,737	12,057	8,049	247,844
2007	0	231,269	10,518	7,113	248,900
2008	0	194,804	8,320	5,316	208,440
2009	0	173,764	6,993	3,772	184,530
2010	0	139,383	5,375	2,479	147,236
2011	0	139,560	4,518	2,457	146,536
2012	0	118,507	3,595	1,559	123,661
2013	0	102,361	2,446	1,036	105,843
2014	890	26,054	1,493	308	28,745
2015	1,171	6,015	1,292	0	8,478
2016	1,009	5,022	973	0	7,004
2017	909	2,348	558	0	3,816
2018	749	3,504	698	0	4,950
2019	747	2,948	791	0	4,485
2020	548	2,446	569	0	3,563
2021	300	1,536	232	0	2,068
2022	246	1,344	68	0	1,658
2023	289	1,522	98	0	1,909
2024	220	1,214	74	0	1,508
2025	181	829	53	0	1,062
2026	279	587	68	0	933

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 15/9-9 in 1981. The directorate's wellbore register lists 41 wellbores on Sleipner Øst: 6 exploration and 35 development. The deepest reaches 9,661 metres measured depth. Water depth at the field's installations is 83 to 85 metres.

How it reaches market

Sleipner Øst's production leaves the field by pipeline:

Zeepipe Igas → Zeepipe-Scp
Sleipner Kondensatrørcondensate → Kårstø
Langeledgas → Easington

Installations on Sleipner Øst

Sleipner ACondeep 4 Shafts1993
Sleipner FlJacket Tripod1993
Sleipner RJacket 4 Legs1993

The first of them entered service in 1993. The field also has 2 subsea structures — wellheads and templates on the seabed — which are drawn individually on the map.

Licence partners

Equinor Energy AS59.60%
ORLEN Upstream Norway AS25.00%
Vår Energi ASA15.40%

The field sits in block 15/9, under production licence PL 046.

Questions people ask

Who operates the Sleipner Øst field?: Sleipner Øst is operated by Equinor Energy AS, in partnership with ORLEN Upstream Norway AS, Vår Energi ASA.
How much does Sleipner Øst produce?: 932 barrels of oil equivalent per day as of May 2026 — 0.0% of Norwegian Continental Shelf output, ranking 88 of 94 producing fields.
When did Sleipner Øst start producing?: First production was reported in 1993, 12 years after discovery well 15/9-9 proved the field in 1981.

See it live

Sleipner Øst 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.

Other fields in the North sea

Troll Johan Sverdrup Gullfaks Sør Oseberg Visund Balder Snorre Ekofisk All fields →