Vår Energi / Operations / Our key hubs / Balder Area

The Balder hub

Doubling production

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.

With the refurbished Jotun FPSO on track to commence production from the field within Q2 2025 we have the tool to unlock additional production. And we are also maturing a Balder Phase VI project ensuring further long-term value creation in the area.

Steinar Meland

VP Balder Area

Ensuring long-term value creation

Check out the video to learn more about how we are doubling 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 includes lifetime extension and relocation of the Jotun FPSO, and drilling of new subsea wells. The Jotun FPSO is currently at a shipyard undergoing maintenance and upgrades. It is scheduled to be back on the field in 2025. Until then, excess gas is being injected in the Balder and Ringhorne Øst fields.

Several ongoing projects are aiming to utilise the available infrastructure in the area to maximise the recovery from the field.

Ringhorne fast facts

Balder Floating Production Unit. PL001. Produksjonsskip.

Balder fast facts

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 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.