It is said that oil and the wealth it creates affect peoples’ expectations, political institutions and processes, and the division of power in society independent of actual decisions taken by political authorities. The oil worker, being a central element of the industry, is also affected by the hunt for black gold. The oil industry is inherently international, and many oil workers are in fact oil nomads, following their companies’ projects around the world.

Norway’s politicians faced a decision when oil was discovered on the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS) in 1969. They had to consider how stateparticipation in the petroleum industry was to be organised. The outcome was a unanimous vote by the Storting (parliament) to establish Statoil in 1972.

The cross-party agreement which had prevailed at Statoil’s birth in 1972 did not last long. As early as 1973, when the company was to take over the state’s rights in Frigg, conflicts arose over its authority and the need for arrangements which ensured that elected politicians were in control.

Redetermining interests in an oil field is a struggle over positions and power, with prestige and money naturally lurking in the background. Each company adopts the standpoint it feels will give it the best return. Keeping its cards close to its chest is also important, because the process can have different outcomes.

A number of agreements exist for the tie-in of other fields to Statfjord. No such contract applies to Statfjord North, however, since clause 22 in the unitisation agreement includes those fields which lie entirely within the original licence.

An extensive network of agreements weaves a web around operations on the Statfjord field. They either regulate these activities or influence what can and cannot be done. In addition come contracts with other licences and fields on the sale or exchange of services and so forth.

Transferring the Statfjord operatorship from Mobil to Statoil ranks as one of the biggest controversies in Norwegian oil policy. The 1973 licence allowed a change of operator to be requested 10 years after a discovery was declared commercial, and Statoil asked to exercise this right in 1984. Mobil was opposed, and felt it would suffer a huge loss of prestige from such a transfer.

The sale of gas from Statfjord made it necessary to connect the platforms with flowlines to gather gas for export via the Statpipe system. Oil flowlines also linked the platforms, but these had been installed as part of the field development.

Gas has been used in many European countries since the19th century, but it was first in the 1960s – after the Netherlands began production and exports from the major Groningen field – that a common market for this commodity emerged in Europe. The SovietUnion, Algeria and Norway gradually followed the Dutch as gas exporters in the1970s and 1980s. An infrastructure for production, transport, storage andconsumption was constructed as demand increased.

An agreement was entered into on how the various tanker cargoes from Statfjord were to be apportioned between the licensees in order to ensure that they got their correct share of oil output. The biggest licensee, Statoil, received the first cargo, while the next went to Conoco as the second largest. A sequence then followed which meant that each partner secured its entitlement over a certain period. That included the UK share, which involved a separate set of licensees.

When production started from Statfjord A in 1979, oil was loaded into shuttle tankers on the field for transport to land while associated gas was initially flared. Gas injection back into the reservoir started in June 1980.
But it was already clear at the time that a new transport system for gas had to be built and brought into operation by 1985-86. Continued injection might otherwise damage the structure of the reservoir andreduce oil recovery.

A key question when developing Statfjord was how the field’s huge oil and gas volumes were to be brought ashore and supplied to the markets. This issue was carefully studied by Statoil and Mobil before the Storting (parliament) approved the solutions chosen. Specially equipped shuttle tankers were to load the oil offshore and ship it to refineries and receiving terminals throughout northern Europe, while the gas would be piped to Norway and on to Germany.

Development of the Statfjord field from discovery to production was the first oil project in the North Sea to be conducted in full openness. The Norwegian government required Statoil to submit an annual report to the ministry as the basis for a White Paper, which was debated before the start of the financial year.

Statfjord is the story of the oil field which created Statoil as an oil company, and which in turn shaped the development of Norway as an oil nation. The discovery made in production licence 037, covering blocks 33/9 and 33/12.

Statfjord is one of the fields on the NCS with the largest production. It yielded four billion barrels of oil equivalent during its first 30 years on stream, twice as much as was thought possible in the original development plan. In addition comes output from the subsea satellite fields.

A selection of source material has been subject to an archival form of conversation as part of the Statfjord industrial heritage project. These include case files, photographs, films, publications, objects, interviews and other records. This material is registered in databases, with links to digitised records where available.