Vår Energi awards rig contract to Seadrill

Vår Energi AS awards rig contract to Seadrill Norway Operations AS, a Seadrill Ltd subsidiary, and secures the West Phoenix drilling rig for work on the Balder Future re-development project in the North Sea. 

West Phoenix is selected to drill new production- and injection wells on the Balder field in the period Q2 2021 to Q3 2023. The drilling campaign is part of the Balder Future re-development project.

Vår Energi VP Operations, Rune Oldervoll, says:

"The Balder Future project is one of our key growth projects, and will be one of the largest development projects on the Norwegian Continental Shelf for the coming years. We are very pleased with the rig selection and are happy to have Seadrill on board the team.  We look forward to work together for a safe and efficient drilling campaign."

The contract is subject to authority approval of the revised plan for development and operations for Balder and Ringhorne. The Balder Future project is a part of the Balder X project with the target to recover around 200 million barrels of additional reserves from the Balder-Ringhorne area in the North Sea.

Vår Energi has reserves and resources of more than 1 900 million barrels of oil equivalent (Mboe), and is expected to reach a daily production of 350 000 barrels of oil equivalent by 2023.

This will require developing more than 500 million barrels of oil equivalent in over ten existing projects in Vår Energi’s development portfolio on the Norwegian continental shelf. The Balder X project is key in this growth plan.