Who operates the Vega field?

Vega is operated by Harbour Energy Norge AS, in partnership with Petoro AS, DNO Norge AS, Vår Energi ASA and others.

How much does Vega produce?

23,967 barrels of oil equivalent per day as of May 2026 — 0.6% of Norwegian Continental Shelf output, ranking 40 of 94 producing fields.

When did Vega start producing?

First production was reported in 2010, 29 years after discovery well 35/8-1 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.

Vega field

Vega is producing 23,967 barrels of oil equivalent a day — 0.6% of everything the Norwegian Continental Shelf produced in May 2026, ranking 40 of the 94 fields in production.

Production

23,967 boe/d

Share of NCS

0.6%

Operator

Harbour Energy Norge AS

First oil

2010

What it produces

In May 2026 the field delivered 23,967 barrels of oil equivalent a day, classified by the directorate as gas/condensate — almost entirely gas. Output has moved down 36.6% over the past twelve months, and the directorate's profile for the field is late life. The field's best year was 2014, averaging 69,183 boe/d — today it runs at 35% of that.

Since 2010, Vega has produced roughly 267 million barrels of oil equivalent in total. The directorate's estimate of recoverable resources is 298 million boe, of which about 90% has now been recovered; 44 million boe remained as of 31.12.2025.

Timeline

1981
Proven by exploration well 35/8-1
2010
First production reported
2014
Best year to date — 69,183 boe/d

Production by year, 2010–2026

OilGasNGL/condensateboe/d

Full table, year by year

Year	Oil	Gas	NGL	Condensate	Total boe/d
2010	309	0	80	17	406
2011	11,340	12,785	6,196	762	31,083
2012	14,752	17,899	10,769	1,072	44,493
2013	17,214	25,678	14,929	1,688	59,510
2014	20,382	28,703	18,129	1,969	69,183
2015	19,210	29,054	17,643	1,883	67,789
2016	15,527	28,714	18,035	0	62,276
2017	9,955	21,854	14,524	0	46,332
2018	9,434	24,708	16,240	0	50,382
2019	8,058	25,895	13,578	0	47,531
2020	7,342	27,070	15,946	0	50,359
2021	6,103	21,075	10,885	0	38,063
2022	9,438	25,519	7,053	0	42,011
2023	6,593	27,951	7,614	0	42,157
2024	4,545	25,630	12,652	0	42,826
2025	2,850	17,519	5,945	0	26,314
2026	2,051	16,590	4,698	0	23,338

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 35/8-1 in 1981. The directorate's wellbore register lists 17 wellbores on Vega: 4 exploration and 13 development. The deepest reaches 6,435 metres measured depth. Water depth at the field's installations is 368 to 378 metres.

Installations on Vega

The field also has 3 subsea structures — wellheads and templates on the seabed — which are drawn individually on the map.

Licence partners

Harbour Energy Norge AS56.70%
Petoro AS31.20%
DNO Norge AS5.50%
Vår Energi ASA3.30%
INPEX Idemitsu Norge AS3.30%

The field sits in blocks 35/11, 35/7, 35/8, under production licences PL 090 C, PL 248, PL 248 B.

Questions people ask

Who operates the Vega field?: Vega is operated by Harbour Energy Norge AS, in partnership with Petoro AS, DNO Norge AS, Vår Energi ASA and others.
How much does Vega produce?: 23,967 barrels of oil equivalent per day as of May 2026 — 0.6% of Norwegian Continental Shelf output, ranking 40 of 94 producing fields.
When did Vega start producing?: First production was reported in 2010, 29 years after discovery well 35/8-1 proved the field in 1981.

See it live

Vega 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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