Utsira High (Norwegian: Utsirahøgda) is a basement high and horst in the southwest of the Norwegian continental shelf.[1] It lies east of the Viking Graben and west of the Stord and Egersund basins 190 km west of Stavanger.[2][3] It was on the Balder oil field at the flank of the Utsira High that oil was first discovered in Norway in 1967.[3]
The basement is of Utsira High is composed of granite that formed in Ordovician times.[1] Parts of these granites contain saprolite and saprock that formed from weathering above sea level during the Early Mesozoic.[2] before they became buried in Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous-aged sandstone.[1] These weathered rocks may be unconventional petroleum reservoirs.[2]
The strandflat at Bømlo island is considered a sedimentary rock-free equivalent to the Utsira High.[1]