Balder Oil Field

Operator: Var Enerji
Website: https://varenergi.no/
Country: Norway
Location: North Sea approximately 190 km Northwest of Stavanger
Production start: 1999
Partners:
Type: Oil
Estimated Reserves:
- 71.3 million Sm³ oil - 17.3 million Sm³ oil
- 1.6 billion Sm³ gas - 0.3 billion Sm³ gas
Production Volume:
- Oil: 42 000 barrels/day
- Gas: 0.05 billion Sm³

The Balder field consists of a floating production, storage, and offloading vessel (FPSO) and several subsea production systems. It is located in the North Sea approximately 190 km Northwest of Stavanger.
The Ringhorne discovery, included in the Balder field, is developed with a combined accommodation, drilling and wellhead facility, tied back to the Balder FPSO
The Ringhorne facility is tied to the Balder and Jotun A FPSO for processing, crude oil storage and gas export. The oil is transported by tankers. Excess gas from Balder is routed to Jotun for gas export. Jotun exports Ringhorne and Balder gas to Statpipe Gas Pipeline. In periods with reduced gas export, excess gas may be injected into the Balder reservoir.

Smedvig: FPSO vessel construction
ABB Group: Subsea facilities
Coflexip Stena Offshore: Subsea installation
Smit Maritime Contractors: Marine installation
Emtunga:
- Living Quarter Extension
- Ringhorne - Living Quarter Module and Helideck
Baker Hughes: a bespoke vertical tree system

1965 - Licence awarded
1974 - Oil discovered in Balder
1996 - Plan for Development and Operations (PDO) approved by the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy
1999 - First oil produced
2019 - Var Enerji acquired Exxon's stake
2019 - Balder extension plan launched
2023 - Contracts awarded for new vertical tree system

The field contains several separate oil deposits in Eocene, Paleocene and Jurassic sandstones. The reservoirs in the Rogaland Group belong to the Heimdal, Hermod and Ty Formations, and the reservoirs in the Brent Group belong to the Statfjord Formation. Top reservoirs are at a depth of about 1 700 metres.

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