StatoilHydro has drilled a well almost 10km long and almost completely horizontal. Titled the Gulltopp well and located on the Gullfaks field, the well provides the company with valuable knowhow and great revenues. The drilling equipment on Gullfaks A must be reinforced several times in order to complete the record-long and almost horizontal well. The red-letter day on the Gullfaks A platform in the North Sea was 8 April 2008. The most complicated well in StatoilHydro’s history was successfully completed and hydrocarbons were flowing up through the well at 9910m. This is thus the longest producing well in the world drilled from an offshore platform. The Gulltopp well is a result of the distance from the nearest platform. It is 10km from Gullfaks to the oil discovery. Gulltopp will, together with other prospects in the area, secure continued Gullfaks operations towards 2030. An extensive plan for how to extend the life of the field, which came on stream back in 1986, has been developed. The 10km drill pipe was controlled from the drilling rig at the sea surface. It was run 150m down to the seabed, and then kilometre after kilometre through various types of rock strata.