Who operates the Vigdis field?

Vigdis is operated by Equinor Energy AS, in partnership with Petoro AS, Vår Energi ASA, INPEX Idemitsu Norge AS and others.

How much does Vigdis produce?

19,782 barrels of oil equivalent per day as of May 2026 — 0.5% of Norwegian Continental Shelf output, ranking 45 of 94 producing fields.

When did Vigdis start producing?

First production was reported in 1997, 11 years after discovery well 34/7-8 proved the field in 1986.

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.

Vigdis field

Vigdis is producing 19,782 barrels of oil equivalent a day — 0.5% of everything the Norwegian Continental Shelf produced in May 2026, ranking 45 of the 94 fields in production.

Production

19,782 boe/d

Share of NCS

0.5%

Operator

Equinor Energy AS

First oil

1997

What it produces

In May 2026 the field delivered 19,782 barrels of oil equivalent a day, classified by the directorate as oil — almost entirely oil. Output has moved up 39.9% over the past twelve months, and the directorate's profile for the field is growing. The field's best year was 1999, averaging 88,040 boe/d — today it runs at 22% of that.

Since 1997, Vigdis has produced roughly 468 million barrels of oil equivalent in total. The directorate's estimate of recoverable resources is 507 million boe, of which about 92% has now been recovered; 40 million boe remained as of 31.12.2025.

Timeline

1986
Proven by exploration well 34/7-8
1997
First production reported
1999
Best year to date — 88,040 boe/d

Production by year, 1997–2026

OilGasNGL/condensateboe/d

Full table, year by year

Year	Oil	Gas	NGL	Condensate	Total boe/d
1997	27,518	0	0	0	27,518
1998	81,411	0	0	0	81,411
1999	88,040	0	0	0	88,040
2000	72,147	0	0	0	72,147
2001	63,248	0	0	0	63,248
2002	52,605	0	0	0	52,605
2003	57,931	657	913	0	59,501
2004	61,646	3,259	4,437	0	69,342
2005	63,605	3,230	3,933	0	70,768
2006	64,766	3,745	5,654	0	74,165
2007	56,472	3,604	5,049	0	65,125
2008	52,736	3,697	3,093	96	59,622
2009	45,373	3,435	2,445	130	51,382
2010	33,958	2,074	1,393	92	37,516
2011	35,069	2,448	1,976	81	39,574
2012	31,994	3,008	2,505	176	37,683
2013	32,879	1,788	1,124	47	35,838
2014	38,070	426	1,351	159	40,006
2015	35,337	0	1	0	35,338
2016	29,817	402	2,885	0	33,104
2017	22,184	533	2,620	0	25,337
2018	23,850	587	2,713	0	27,150
2019	16,889	213	1,080	0	18,182
2020	12,343	0	0	0	12,343
2021	24,631	0	0	0	24,631
2022	22,793	0	0	0	22,793
2023	18,013	0	0	0	18,013
2024	12,861	0	0	0	12,861
2025	16,471	0	0	0	16,471
2026	19,968	0	0	0	19,968

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 34/7-8 in 1986. The directorate's wellbore register lists 72 wellbores on Vigdis: 16 exploration and 55 development, plus 1 others. The deepest reaches 7,030 metres measured depth. Water depth at the field's installations is 140 to 292 metres.

Installations on Vigdis

The field also has 10 subsea structures — wellheads and templates on the seabed — which are drawn individually on the map.

Licence partners

Equinor Energy AS41.50%
Petoro AS30.00%
Vår Energi ASA16.10%
INPEX Idemitsu Norge AS9.60%
Harbour Energy Norge AS2.80%

The field sits in block 34/7, under production licence PL 089.

Questions people ask

Who operates the Vigdis field?: Vigdis is operated by Equinor Energy AS, in partnership with Petoro AS, Vår Energi ASA, INPEX Idemitsu Norge AS and others.
How much does Vigdis produce?: 19,782 barrels of oil equivalent per day as of May 2026 — 0.5% of Norwegian Continental Shelf output, ranking 45 of 94 producing fields.
When did Vigdis start producing?: First production was reported in 1997, 11 years after discovery well 34/7-8 proved the field in 1986.

See it live

Vigdis 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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