Statfjord was discovered by Mobil in 1974, and Statoil took over the operatorship on 1 January 1987.
The field has been developed with the Statfjord A, B and C production platforms, which all have concrete gravity base structures incorporating storage cells.
Statfjord A began production on 24 November 1979.
Statfjord B followed on 5 November 1982, and Statfjord C on 26 June 1985.
The Norwegian share of the field lies in blocks 33/9 and 33/12 in production licence 037, while the British part is in UK block 211/25 in licences 104 and 293.
The field is likely to remain in production until 2019.
Statfjord is one of the oldest producing fields on the Norwegian continental shelf, and the largest oil discovery in the North Sea.
When drilling and well work are under way on the field, about 200 people are employed on Statfjord A, 200 on the B platform and 240 on Statfjord C. Personnel do 12-hour shifts in a 14-day offshore tour, followed by a month off.
Almost 400 people used to be transported to and from Statfjord every day. This number is now substantially reduced, partly because activities have been discontinued or moved to land.
Oil and gas transport
Statfjord oil production is loaded into shuttle tankers on the field and shipped to a number of ports in north-western Europe. A new consignment departs roughly every other day.
The Norwegian share of gas from the field is piped to the Kårstø processing complex north of Stavanger and on to continental Europe.
Britain’s 14.53 per cent of the gas travels by pipeline via the Brent field to Scotland.
Cargoes are allocated between the field licensees in proportion to their interest in the respective licences.
Storage capacity
The storage cells on the Statfjord A hold 206 000 standard cubic metres, 1,3 million barrels of oil
The storage cells on the Statfjord B hold 302 000 standard cubic metres, 1,9 million barrels of oil
The storage cells on the Statfjord C hold 302 000 standard cubic metres, 1,9 million barrels of oil
Oil and gas production
The hydrocarbon reservoir formations on Statfjord lie at depths of 2 500-3 000 metres.
They consist of sandstones, with the oil and gas held in pores between the individual sand grains.
These hydrocarbon-bearing sediments were all deposited in the Jurassic era, about 150 million years ago.
Roughly 150-160 000 barrels of oil per day are produced from the three platforms by the Statfjord Unit, which unites all the licences.
Oil is also produced from satellite fields tied back to Statfjord, bringing total output from the platforms to 470-480 000 barrels per day.
The production record for a single day on Statfjord was set on 16 January 1987, when 850 204 barrels were produced.
Roughly six million cubic metres of gas are exported daily by the Statfjord Unit.
