Vår Energi announced it has awarded a rig contract to Seadrill to secure the West Phoenix drilling rig for work on the Balder Future redevelopment project in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea.
The contract, which is subject to authority approval of the $2.1 billion revised plan for development and operations for Balder and Ringhorne, will see West Phoenix drill new production and injection wells on the Balder field from the second quarter of 2021 to the third quarter of 2023.
"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," said Vår Energi VP Operations, Rune Oldervoll.
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 1.9 billion barrels of oil equivalent (boe), and is expected to reach a daily production of 350,000 boe by 2023.
This will require developing more than 500 million boe in more than 10 existing projects in Vår Energi’s development portfolio on the Norwegian continental shelf.