Statoil was forced to shut down its Snorre A platform and the linked Vigdis platform on Oct. 13 because an industry study found defects in lifeboats essential to evacuating crew in a crisis.

"Lifeboat capacity has now sufficiently improved for production to resume on both platforms," a Statoil news release said.

It said the Snorre A platform, which produces about 115,000 barrels per day of oil equivalents, resumed production on Thursday, while the unmanned Vigdis platform it operates by remote control was restarted on Wednesday. Vigdis produces about 85,000 barrels per day of oil equivalents, which measure the energy content rather than the volume of oil and natural gas.