The first oil shipment

Julia Stangeland

Thursday, 29 January 1987, the first crude oil was loaded onto "MT Sarita".

— “MT Sarita” loading the first crude from the Gullfaks A loading buoy, 29 January 1987. Photo: Leif Berge/Equinor

The first oil shipment from the Gullfaks field amounted to 132,000 standard cubic metres of crude oil. The oil had been produced on Gullfaks A, which at the time was the only platform in operation on the Gullfaks field.

The oil came from subsea production wells. It wasn’t until February 1987 that oil was produced from wells drilled directly from Gullfaks A.

After loading, “MT Sarita” set course for the refinery at Mongstad.

On 30 January, 65,000 standard cubic metres of oil were delivered there.[REMOVE]Fotnote: Haugesunds Avis. «Første oljelasta fra Gullfaks.» 31 Janurary 1987. The remainder was transferred to another tanker, which headed for Statoil’s Danish refinery in Kalundborg. The oil was split between the two refineries so that both could begin gaining experience with the new crude as soon as possible.[REMOVE]Fotnote: Hansen, Thorvald Buch. «Den første olja» Statoil. 9, nr. 1, (1987): 6.

The first oil shipment was carefully documented in the Gullfaks A laboratory. Today, the logbook is part of the collection at the Norwegian Petroleum Museum. Photo: Shadé B. Martins/Norwegian Petroleum Museum.

Haugesunds Avis reported that the Gullfaks oil was of good quality and particularly well suited for gasoline production. The newspaper added that the Mongstad refinery had to be adjusted to handle the Gullfaks oil. The year 1987 was expected to be a year of testing. After refinery modifications, the oil would be processed as normal.[REMOVE]Fotnote: Haugesunds Avis. «Første oljelast fra Gullfaks.» 31. januar 1987.

“MT Sarita” was one of several shuttle tankers (specially built vessels used for loading oil from offshore loading buoys) eventually constructed to transport oil from the Gullfaks field. The shipping operations were managed by I/S Gullfaks Transport, with Statoil as the operating company. The vessels were under long-term charter agreements. They were owned by shipping companies contracted by Gullfaks Transport, and their crews were employed by those companies.[REMOVE]Fotnote: Statoil, Annual Report 1987, 33. Statoil, Annual Report 1988, 38. Statoil, Annual Report 1990, 34.