Vessel collision shuts down Ekofisk 2/4 K platform in Norwegian North Sea

Production at the Ekofisk 2/4 K oil platform in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea has been temporarily suspended after a multipurpose vessel collided with the installation on October 23rd, prompting an automatic safety shutdown and emergency inspection.

According to Norwegian broadcaster TV 2, the incident occurred within the Ekofisk field, one of the oldest and most productive oil complexes in Norway, and led to the immediate evacuation of non-essential personnel. 

The platform’s operator, ConocoPhillips Norge, reportedly confirmed that while no injuries occurred, the impact triggered a full halt in production while engineers assessed potential structural damage to the platform’s jacket and riser systems. 

Despite the cessation of operations at the platform, several regional news sites quoted ConocoPhillips as saying that the outage had made only an “insignificant impact” on the production of oil and gas in the greater Ekofisk area. The news sites quoted an emailed statement that the company sent out on October 24th. 

ConocoPhillips said that the platform, which injects water into the Ekofisk field’s reservoirs, boosting pressure for oil and gas production, was struck by a vessel last Thursday, causing some damage but no injuries. “Preliminary assessments indicate minor impact on the platform structure,” a spokesperson for the company said in the emailed statement.

Production will remain suspended until a complete safety inspection is completed and structural integrity is verified. 

“An investigation has been initiated, and further inspections will be conducted as weather conditions permit. Resumption of water injections will be evaluated following completion of the inspections,” the emailed statement said. 

Norwegian authorities and the Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA) have opened an investigation into the cause of the collision, focusing on weather conditions, navigation system data, and vessel operator compliance with the platform’s 500-meter exclusion zone.

The Ekofisk 2/4 K platform forms part of the larger Ekofisk complex, a network of more than a dozen fixed installations located about 320 kilometers southwest of Stavanger. 

Operated by ConocoPhillips Norge under license partners including Equinor and TotalEnergies, the Ekofisk field began production in 1971 and remains one of Norway’s cornerstone offshore energy projects. 

The 2/4 K structure functions primarily as a processing and accommodation platform linked by bridges to adjacent production modules. 

While exact output figures for this unit are not public, the Ekofisk field as a whole processes over 150,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day and connects to the Norpipe system that exports crude to Teesside, England.

The vessel involved in the collision has not yet been officially named, though it has been described by maritime officials as a multipurpose support vessel conducting maintenance operations in the vicinity of the field.