Who operates the Snøhvit field?

Snøhvit is operated by Equinor Energy AS, in partnership with Petoro AS, TotalEnergies EP Norge AS, Vår Energi ASA and others.

How much does Snøhvit produce?

122,356 barrels of oil equivalent per day as of May 2026 — 2.9% of Norwegian Continental Shelf output, ranking 7 of 94 producing fields.

When did Snøhvit start producing?

First production was reported in 2007, 26 years after discovery well 7120/8-1 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.

Snøhvit field

Snøhvit is producing 122,356 barrels of oil equivalent a day — 2.9% of everything the Norwegian Continental Shelf produced in May 2026, ranking 7 of the 94 fields in production.

Production

122,356 boe/d

Share of NCS

2.9%

Operator

Equinor Energy AS

First oil

2007

What it produces

In May 2026 the field delivered 122,356 barrels of oil equivalent a day, classified by the directorate as gas — almost entirely gas. Output has moved down 4.4% over the past twelve months, and the directorate's profile for the field is plateau. The field's best year was 2018, averaging 136,345 boe/d — today it runs at 90% of that.

Since 2007, Snøhvit has produced roughly 664 million barrels of oil equivalent in total. The directorate's estimate of recoverable resources is 1,696 million boe, of which about 39% has now been recovered; 1,039 million boe remained as of 31.12.2025.

The story of Snøhvit

Snøhvit was the first development in the Barents Sea and remains one of the most unusual on the shelf: there is nothing on the surface at all. The wells sit on the seabed, and the unprocessed stream travels 143 kilometres in a pipeline to Melkøya outside Hammerfest — Europe’s first LNG export plant — where the gas is liquefied and shipped.

Timeline

1981
Proven by exploration well 7120/8-1
2007
On stream — the Barents Sea’s first field, fully subsea
2018
Best year to date — 136,345 boe/d

Production by year, 2007–2026

GasNGL/condensateboe/d

Full table, year by year

Year	Gas	NGL	Condensate	Total boe/d
2007	2,494	242	1,910	4,646
2008	40,475	4,245	8,701	53,420
2009	57,431	5,603	10,316	73,349
2010	86,155	8,127	14,507	108,788
2011	74,357	6,969	12,365	93,692
2012	79,937	7,384	13,245	100,567
2013	73,911	6,998	11,964	92,872
2014	90,019	8,241	13,892	112,152
2015	102,761	9,293	15,208	127,262
2016	104,065	9,432	14,989	128,487
2017	96,091	8,865	13,550	118,505
2018	111,167	9,981	15,197	136,345
2019	107,125	9,116	14,257	130,499
2020	64,895	5,148	8,476	78,519
2021	-626	-62	-4	-692
2022	63,585	4,372	7,979	75,936
2023	101,431	5,550	12,078	119,058
2024	110,105	6,998	12,896	130,000
2025	70,881	4,107	8,173	83,161
2026	107,684	6,153	10,880	124,717

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 7120/8-1 in 1981. The directorate's wellbore register lists 41 wellbores on Snøhvit: 19 exploration and 21 development, plus 1 others. The deepest reaches 5,754 metres measured depth. Water depth at the field's installations is 233 to 340 metres.

How it reaches market

Snøhvit's production leaves the field by pipeline:

Snøhvit Gassrørgas → Melkøya

The field has run on power from shore — fed from Melkøya since 2007 — rather than on gas turbines offshore.

Installations on Snøhvit

The field also has 9 subsea structures — wellheads and templates on the seabed — which are drawn individually on the map.

Licence partners

Equinor Energy AS36.79%
Petoro AS30.00%
TotalEnergies EP Norge AS18.40%
Vår Energi ASA12.00%
Harbour Energy Norge AS2.81%

The field sits in blocks 7120/5, 7120/6, 7120/7, 7120/8, 7120/9, 7121/4, 7121/5, 7121/6, 7121/7, 7122/6, under production licences PL 110, PL 097, PL 077, PL 448, PL 064, PL 078, PL 099, PL 110 B, PL 100.

Questions people ask

Who operates the Snøhvit field?: Snøhvit is operated by Equinor Energy AS, in partnership with Petoro AS, TotalEnergies EP Norge AS, Vår Energi ASA and others.
How much does Snøhvit produce?: 122,356 barrels of oil equivalent per day as of May 2026 — 2.9% of Norwegian Continental Shelf output, ranking 7 of 94 producing fields.
When did Snøhvit start producing?: First production was reported in 2007, 26 years after discovery well 7120/8-1 proved the field in 1981.

See it live

Snøhvit 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 Barents sea

Johan Castberg Goliat All fields →