industry, the biggest in western Europe, is under way.

This is the Johan Sverdrup field, the biggest discovery

in Norway for three decades.

And one which contains 2.7bn barrels of oil and could earn

this Scandinavian country $100bn over the next 50 years.

Norway first discovered oil in December 1969.

And now 50 years later, one of the biggest oil

fields in the North Sea for decades

is about to come online.

But it's about to produce its first oil at the same time

that there is an intense environmental debate about just

how long oil can be produced.

Could this be the last ever large field in the North Sea?

The four permanent interconnected platforms

are currently home to 500 workers.

And are expected to account for about a third

of Norway's total oil production.

Under pressure from environmentalists

and politicians, state controlled

group Equinor chose to use clean hydro-electricity from land

rather than the usual dirtier gas turbines to power

the platform.

The start of the Johan Sverdrup, the 5th of October,

was a milestone because it represented

the past 50 years and also the forward looking 50 years.

And Johan Sverdrup will represent a very important part

of the oil production on the Norwegian continental shelf

going forward from various perspectives.

The value perspective is of course, creating NKr900bn

to the Norwegian state alone.

And also from a climate perspective,

where we produce this oil and some gas

with a climate footprint of 0.67 kilos per produced

barrel, which if you compare to the global average of 18

kilos per barrel, it's pretty climate efficient I would say.

Many of Norway's biggest oil fields

are due to stop producing in the coming years.

And combined with pressure from environmentalists,

some wonder if this field could mark

the industry's last big hurrah.

The possibility of finding such a big field

as Johan Sverdrup is still there but you know the chances of it

is being a slimmer and slimmer as we move along.

I think for the NCS it's more about smaller resources.

We need to work really hard as an industry,

together with our suppliers, to be

able to be competitive and extract also those, the smaller

reservoir or smaller findings that we might see out

here going forward.

Yohan Sverdrup is not only vital for Equinor and its partners,

it's also a symbol for Norway and how

it's become one of the world's richest countries through oil.

But 50 years on from the initial discovery

of black gold, the questions about how the industry will get

through its next five decades in Norway are growing ever louder.