Who operates the Ula field?

Ula is operated by Aker BP ASA, in partnership with DNO Norge AS.

How much does Ula produce?

3,458 barrels of oil equivalent per day as of May 2026 — 0.1% of Norwegian Continental Shelf output, ranking 71 of 94 producing fields.

When did Ula start producing?

First production was reported in 1986, 10 years after discovery well 7/12-2 proved the field in 1976.

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.

Ula field

Ula is producing 3,458 barrels of oil equivalent a day — 0.1% of everything the Norwegian Continental Shelf produced in May 2026, ranking 71 of the 94 fields in production.

Production

3,458 boe/d

Share of NCS

0.1%

Operator

Aker BP ASA

First oil

1986

What it produces

In May 2026 the field delivered 3,458 barrels of oil equivalent a day, classified by the directorate as oil — almost entirely oil. Output has moved up 2.4% over the past twelve months, and the directorate's profile for the field is mature. The field's best year was 1993, averaging 143,638 boe/d — today it runs at 2% of that.

Since 1986, Ula has produced roughly 546 million barrels of oil equivalent in total. The directorate's estimate of recoverable resources is 552 million boe, of which about 99% has now been recovered; 3 million boe remained as of 31.12.2025.

Timeline

1976
Proven by exploration well 7/12-2
1986
First production reported
1986
Ula Dp (jacket 4 legs) enters service
1986
Ula Pp (jacket 4 legs) enters service
1986
Ula Qp (jacket 4 legs) enters service
1993
Best year to date — 143,638 boe/d

Production by year, 1986–2026

OilGasNGL/condensateboe/d

Full table, year by year

Year	Oil	Gas	NGL	Total boe/d
1986	14,589	654	1,143	16,386
1987	78,941	5,515	6,839	91,295
1988	86,989	6,212	8,636	101,836
1989	87,131	5,997	8,490	101,618
1990	94,868	6,476	8,868	110,213
1991	116,886	7,314	9,127	133,327
1992	125,747	7,860	9,118	142,724
1993	126,594	8,134	8,910	143,638
1994	94,049	6,017	6,425	106,490
1995	65,469	4,042	4,373	73,884
1996	46,652	2,841	2,787	52,280
1997	38,287	2,527	2,205	43,019
1998	29,248	381	1,271	30,900
1999	25,108	0	876	25,984
2000	20,242	0	747	20,988
2001	22,797	109	1,198	24,104
2002	21,386	786	1,591	23,763
2003	18,449	863	1,452	20,764
2004	17,764	482	1,127	19,372
2005	18,704	0	1,270	19,974
2006	17,027	0	1,107	18,134
2007	13,869	118	767	14,754
2008	9,443	17	412	9,872
2009	12,871	25	573	13,468
2010	18,976	0	914	19,890
2011	12,736	0	471	13,207
2012	9,095	0	361	9,456
2013	9,375	0	390	9,765
2014	11,136	0	384	11,519
2015	8,546	0	287	8,833
2016	7,931	0	270	8,201
2017	7,840	0	234	8,073
2018	7,360	0	156	7,516
2019	5,347	0	459	5,806
2020	5,403	0	752	6,155
2021	5,014	0	525	5,538
2022	3,380	0	384	3,763
2023	6,265	0	504	6,770
2024	4,684	0	277	4,961
2025	4,594	0	322	4,917
2026	3,428	0	240	3,668

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 7/12-2 in 1976. The directorate's wellbore register lists 60 wellbores on Ula: 11 exploration and 49 development. The deepest reaches 7,320 metres measured depth. Water depth at the field's installations is 71 metres.

How it reaches market

Ula's production leaves the field by pipeline:

Ula Oljerøroil → Ekofisk J

Installations on Ula

Ula DpJacket 4 Legs1986
Ula PpJacket 4 Legs1986
Ula QpJacket 4 Legs1986

The first of them entered service in 1986.

Licence partners

Aker BP ASA80.00%
DNO Norge AS20.00%

The field sits in blocks 7/12, under production licences PL 019, PL 019 E.

Questions people ask

Who operates the Ula field?: Ula is operated by Aker BP ASA, in partnership with DNO Norge AS.
How much does Ula produce?: 3,458 barrels of oil equivalent per day as of May 2026 — 0.1% of Norwegian Continental Shelf output, ranking 71 of 94 producing fields.
When did Ula start producing?: First production was reported in 1986, 10 years after discovery well 7/12-2 proved the field in 1976.

See it live

Ula 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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