North Sea Balder area partners commit to additional subsea tieback

Vår Energi and partner Kistos Energy Norway have taken FID on a fast-track development in the Balder area of the Norwegian North Sea.

The Balder Phase VI project will recover about 15 MMboe of reserves at an estimated cost of NOK 2.6 billion ($260 million). According to Vår Energi, the breakeven should be well below $35/bbl with payback expected less than a year from the planned start of production at the end of 2026 (at current prices).

Hardware for the development will comprise one additional multilateral production well, installation of a new subsea template and a flowline to be tied back to the newly upgraded Jotun FPSO.

Vår Energi COO Torger Rød said, “With the Jotun FPSO now installed as the new area host, we will continue to unlock additional high value barrels from the Balder area through several phases of new developments and field optimizations. This includes Balder Phase V, which will come on stream later this year.”

Balder Phase VI is one of about eight project sanctions the company expects to take this year. Elsewhere in the Balder area, the partners are progressing various other early phase projects including Balder Next, targeting further gross contingent resources of about 55 MMboe.

This project would involve taking the Balder FPU to shore for decommissioning, currently planned for 2028, with certain wells currently producing though the FPU transferred to the Jotun FPSO.

These activities, combined with a debottlenecking project to increase production capacity on the FPSO, and at the same time develop new production wells, should collectively ramp up production.

At the same time, decommissioning of the FPU should cut operating costs by about $130 million per year and lower CO₂ emissions by about 80,000 metric tons/year, according to the company.

First production is also imminent from the initial Balder Future project, with the Jotun FPSO serving as the new area host at the Balder Field. This should deliver an initial 80,000 boe/d of production compared with the area’s current daily peak of about 30,000 boe/d.

Production should then level out at 70,000-80,000 boe/d toward 2030.