Statoil said Thursday it finished installing one of the first pieces of equipment needed for production from the giant Johan Sverdrup field offshore Norway.

The Norwegian energy company said it finished installation of a 280-ton piece of equipment called a pre-drilling template at the Johan Sverdrup field.

"We have completed and installed the first piece of one of the largest industrial projects in Europe," Kjetel Digre, head of the Johan Sverdrup field development, said in a statement. "We still have a long journey ahead in the Johan Sverdrup development, but we are very pleased that we have completed and installed the subsea template without serious incidents and according to plan."

A Norwegian metal worker in late June started cutting steel for the jacket, the tower support structure, for a riser platform used for Johan Sverdrup. At a designed 26,500 tons, the entire jacket will be the largest in Europe once completed.

Once in full swing, the field, the fifth largest ever discovered off the Norwegian coast, should account for as much as 25 percent of all Norwegian petroleum production.

Peak production is expected to be as high as 650,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.

The first phase of operations at the field will represent $15 billion in investments. Statoil estimates Johan Sverdrup should generate $200 billion in revenues over the next 50 years.

The 2019 start date for the field is a year later than originally planned and the government in April said the delay left the country short of its 10-year reserve growth objectives.