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Vår Energi / Operations / Our key hubs / Balder Area

The Balder hub

Strong production growth

Balder is a core hub with expected long-term production upside. The hub accounted for 20% of the company’s production for 2024 and 276 mmboe in 2P reserves at the end of the year.

At Balder and Ringhorne, Vår Energi is operator and holds 90% working interest in Balder and 92,6% working interest in Ringhorne East.

Key assets in the Balder hub are Grane and Breidablikk. Vår Energi holds a ~28.3% working interest in Grane.

The Breidablikk field, which is located around 10 km northeast of the Grane platform, had its start-up ahead of schedule with its first production in October 2023.

The field development concept includes four subsea templates linked to the Grane platform by pipeline. Vår Energi holds a 34.4% working interest in Breidablikk.

quote_left_fill It is a new era for the Balder field in the North Sea. We are extending the life of the first production licence, PL001, on the Norwegian Continental Shelf, adding high value barrels towards 2045 and beyond. With the Jotun FPSO installed as an area host, we are taking necessary steps to add new production through infill drilling, exploration and tie-back developments with short time to market

Steinar Meland

VP Balder Area

Ensuring long-term value creation

Check out the video to learn more about how we are increasing production and extending the Balder area production lifetime.

Key assets

The Balder and Ringhorne fields

Balder is a field in the central part of the North Sea, just west of the Grane field. Balder was discovered in 1967, and the initial plan for development and operation (PDO) was approved in 1996. The production started in 1999. The field has been developed with subsea wells tied-back to the Balder FPU.

The Ringhorne deposit, located nine kilometres north of the Balder FPU, is included in the Balder complex.

Ringhorne is developed with a combined accommodation, drilling and wellhead facility, tied-back to the Balder FPU for processing, crude oil storage and gas export.

The nearby field Ringhorne Øst is also tied-back to Balder via the Ringhorne platform.

A revised PDO for Balder and Ringhorne was approved in 2020. The development plan included lifetime extension and relocation of the Jotun FPSO, and drilling of new subsea wells.

Following a yard stay and an extensive upgrade, the Jotun FPSO was towed back on the field in 2025. Production started in June 2025.

By bringing the Jotun FPSO onstream, production is expected, within three to four months after start-up, to increase by approximately 80 thousand barrels of oil equivalent per day (kboepd) gross, on top of the current production of approximately 30 kboepd gross through the Balder FPU and Ringhorne facilities.

With the Jotun FPSO installed as an area host, Vår Energi is taking necessary steps to add new production through infill drilling, exploration and tie-back developments with short time to market.

Ringhorne fast facts
Balder Floating Production Unit. PL001. Produksjonsskip.
Balder fast facts

Jotun FPSO

Other key assets

Grane

Grane is a processing and drilling platform located about 185 kilometres west of Haugesund. operated by Equinor.

The recoverable volumes have grown compared with the estimates in the PDO and amount to around 950 million barrels of oil, based on the 2021 plan.

The oil from Grane is transported through a 212-km pipeline to the Sture terminal in Øygarden west of Bergen, where it is stored in vast rock caverns in the mountainside, awaiting shipment to the world market.

Grane fast facts

Breidablikk

Breidablikk is a field in the central part of the North Sea, ten kilometers northeast of the Grane field.

The field is one of the largest tie-back fields without separate production facility. It started production in October 2023 and is a highly cost-effective field, utilising existing infrastructure, advanced subsea technology and automated drilling.

The field has reserves of around 30 million standard cubic meters of recoverable oil, approximately 190 million barrels of oil.

The Breidablikk development consists of a subsea solution of 22 oil-producing wells from four subsea templates.

The field is tied back to the Grane platform for processing before the oil is piped to the Sture terminal.

Breidablikk fast facts