Injection water from subsea installation Ekofisk VC (Victor Charlie) began to be pumped down well VC-03 on 28 September 2018. Well number two came on line just under a week later. 

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It shows the development of the Ekofisk area from year to year from the start with the first production in 1971 until 2001.

The Greater Ekofisk Area lies at the southern end of Norway’s North Sea sector, roughly 280 kilometres south-west of Stavanger, and encompasses Ekofisk – the first Norwegian oil field – as well as Eldfisk and Embla.

The 2/4 VB subsea installation began injecting water in May 2013, three kilometres south of the Ekofisk Complex. It formed part of the Ekofisk South project approved by the Storting (parliament) in 2010.

Confusion can easily arise over the terms used in connection with Ekofisk, where the Greater Ekofisk Area (GEA) is a collective designation for a cluster of no less than eight fields. The largest of these is Ekofisk itself.

The oil and gas in Ekofisk lies in a chalk reservoir composed of countless tiny shelly fragments derived from coccolithophores – microscopic algae which make calcium carbonate (CaCO3) scales.

The control centre at Tananger outside Stavanger initiated water injection from the Ekofisk 2/4 VA (Victor Alpha) subsea installation on 10 May 2010.

The temporary Gulftide platform was ready to start producing oil from Ekofisk on 15 June 1971, just over 18 months after the field had been discovered in October 1969.

Water has been injected into the Ekofisk reservoir through dedicated wells since the 1980s to improve recovery of oil and gas. Injection has taken place both from platforms and subsea.
However, a large and heavy plant is needed to treat the seawater used for such waterflooding. That requires a lot of space and energy, and is thereby expensive.

Waterflooding in the Greater Ekofisk Area is intended to maintain reservoir pressure in order to drive more oil and gas out of the chalk reservoir. It also helps to slow seabed subsidence.

Ekofisk is one of the biggest fields on the NCS, and the first to come on stream off Norway. After the discovery had been proven in 1969, bringing it into production was a matter of urgency so that the licensees could start to make money. Ekofisk thereby became the first Norwegian laboratory for testing subsea technology.

Two export pipelines run from the Ekofisk Complex. The one for gas has an external diameter of 36 inches and extends 443 kilometres to the German coastline. With an external diameter of 34 inches, the oil pipeline runs for 354 kilometres to Teesside in north-east England.

Oil and gas from the Greater Ekofisk Area is piped to Teesside in the UK and Emden in Germany respectively, where the pipeline terminals formed part of the field development. ConocoPhillips still operates the oil terminal in Teesside, while the facility in Emden has been taken over by Norwegian state-owned company Gassco.

All the supplies needed to ensure that the offshore platforms can do their job of producing oil and gas pass through the base at Tananger outside Stavanger. Warehouse operation at the base covers five main functions: goods reception, spare parts store, accounting, pipe store and goods dispatch.