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 FPSO, is included in the Balder complex.
Ringhorne is developed with a combined accommodation, drilling and wellhead facility, tied-back to the Balder FPSO for processing, crude oil storage and gas export.
The nearby field Ringhorne Øst is also tied-back to Balder via the Ringhorne platform.
The PDO for Ringhorne Jura was approved in 2000, and the production started in 2003. The Ringhorne Vest PDO exemption was approved in 2003, and the production started in 2004. An amended PDO for Ringhorne was approved in 2007.
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 project is aiming to utilise the available infrastructure in the area to maximise the recovery from the field.
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.
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.