Vats is a village in the municipality of Vindafjord

Vindafjord

Vindafjord is a municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. It is part of the traditional district of Haugaland.Vindafjord was established as a new municipality on 1 January 1965 after the merger of the municipalities of Sandeid and Vats and large parts of Imsland, Skjold and Vikedal...

, in Rogaland

Rogaland

is a county in Western Norway, bordering Hordaland, Telemark, Aust-Agder and Vest-Agder. It is the center of the Norwegian petroleum industry, and as a result of this, Rogaland has the lowest unemployment rate of any county in Norway, 1.1%...

 county, Norway

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

. Vats is located in the traditional district of Haugaland

Haugaland

Haugaland is a traditional district situated on the western coast of Norway. Haugaland is one of the 15 traditional district located within the Region of Vestlandet.-Location:...

.

An important industrial location, the oil platform

Oil platform

An oil platform, also referred to as an offshore platform or, somewhat incorrectly, oil rig, is a lаrge structure with facilities to drill wells, to extract and process oil and natural gas, and to temporarily store product until it can be brought to shore for refining and marketing...

s Statfjord

Statfjord oil field

The Statfjord oil field is an enormous oil and gas field in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea operated by Statoil.It is a trans-median field crossing the Norwegian and UK North Sea Boundary with approximately 15% being in the UK Continental Shelf waters. At peak production it produced over of...

, Gullfaks

Gullfaks oil field

Gullfaks is an oil and gas field in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea operated by Statoil. It was discovered in 1979, in block 34/10, at a water depth of 135 meters. The initial recoverable reserve is , and the remaining recoverable reserve in 2004 is . This oil field reached peak production in...

 and Troll were built here. The Norwegian computer and software company Hatteland Group

Hatteland Group

Hatteland Group is a group of 19 hardware and software companies, primarily known for its RamBase CRM/MRP/ERP system and the AutoStore WMS system. The company's headquarters are in Vats, Norway with additional offices in offices in Oslo, Stavanger, Haugesund, Karmøy, Arendal, Bergen, Porsgrunn,...

 is also headquartered in Vats.

The surrounding area used to constitute a municipality. From 1837 Vats was a part of Skjold

Skjold, Rogaland

Skjold is a former municipality in Rogaland county, Norway.It was created as Skjold formannskapsdistrikt in 1837. The district Tysvær was separated from Skjold in 1849 to constitute a municipality of its own, and the same thing happened to Vats in 1891...

 formannskapsdistrikt

Formannskapsdistrikt

Formannskapsdistrikt was the name for a Norwegian local self-government districts put into force in 1838. This system of municipality was created in a bill approved by the Storting and signed into law by King Carl Johan on 14 January 1837...

, but it became a discrete municipality with 1 095 inhabitants in 1891. On January 1, 1965 the majority of Vats (with 1 128 inhabitants), northern parts of Imsland

Imsland

Imsland is a parish and former municipality in Rogaland county, Norway.It was created by a split from Vikedal on 1 January 1923. At that time Imsland had a population of 604....

, two districts in Skjold as well as Sandeid

Sandeid

Sandeid is a former municipality in Rogaland county, Norway.It was created by a split from Vikedal on 1 January 1923. At that time Sandeid had a population of 558....

 municipality were merged to form the municipality Vindafjord. At the same time, the farms Breidal and Stølsvik with 16 inhabitants became a part of Tysvær

Tysvær

Tysvær is a municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. It is part of the region of Haugaland. The municipality is located at the northern side of Boknafjord, east of Karmøy. Tysvær has a population of 9,349 and an area of 419 km². Aksdalsvatnet is a lake in this municipality.Local...

municipality. Vats is now divided in two parts Nedre Vats and Øvre Vats.