Four giant oil & gas projects line up for start-up in 2025 offshore Norway with more on the cards

Norwegian oil and gas player Vår Energi has confirmed that four major projects are expected to be put into operation this year, enabling the firm’s production to exceed 400,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (kboepd).

While revealing plans to step up the pace to boost production, the company claims that this will enable it to increase its output in the fourth quarter of 2025 to over 400 kboepd driven by project start-ups, with full-year production expected at 330-360 kboepd.

The firm plans to maintain 2026 production at around 400 kboepd and organically sustain output between 350 and 400 kboepd towards 2030. According to Vår Energi, high-value barrels are anticipated to drive down production costs to approximately $10 per barrel of oil (boe) in Q4 2025, while the full-year 2025 production cost guidance is estimated at $11-12 per boe.

The Norwegian player aims to deliver nine project start-ups in 2025, adding 180 kboepd at peak. The firm’s expected capex for the year is $2.3-2.5 billion, with an average annual capex of $2-2.5 billion towards 2030.

While disclosing its strong resource base with more than 2.1 billion boe of net proved plus probable (2P) reserves and 2C resources, the firm highlighted plans to progress over 25 early phase projects, targeting to surpass 500 million boe net 2C contingent resources with around eight new development project sanctions this year.

The company will continue exploration activities on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS), increasing activity to around 20 wells and approximately $350 million of exploration expenditure, with around 50% to be drilled out in the next four years, following a recent hydrocarbon discovery.

Therefore, it has set out to curb Scope 1 operational emissions by over 50% by 2030 and become carbon-neutral in its net equity operational emissions by 2030 through direct investment in natural carbon capture offsets.

Nick Walker, CEO of Vår Energi, highlighted:“2025 is transformational for Vår Energi, with production set to grow above 400 thousand barrels of oil equivalent per day (kboepd) in the fourth quarter and remain at around 400 kboepd in 2026. Towards 2030, we plan to organically sustain production of 350 to 400 kboepd by capturing the value upside in our high-quality assets with a net resource potential of over 3 billion barrels.

“To deliver, we are stepping up the pace and activity level, moving more than 25 early-phase projects forward faster, with a target to sanction up to eight projects in 2025. Furthermore, we are accelerating infill drilling, increasing exploration activity, while becoming carbon neutral in our operational emissions by the end of this decade.”

Vår Energi claims that progress continues to be made toward bringing the Equinor-operated Johan Castberg and Halten East projects online in the first quarter of 2025 and its own FPSO Jotun at Balder by the end of the second quarter of 2025. Equinor, as the operator of Johan Castberg, anchored the FPSO for the project to the seabed with mooring lines in 2024.

Moreover, Vår Energi has also confirmed that inroads are being made to move projects into execution by sanctioning Balder Phase V in the fourth quarter of 2024, targeting start-up in late 2025. The firm made six discoveries in 2024, including two in the fourth quarter, with a nearly 50% exploration success rate for the year.

The firm plans to kick off drilling activities in the first half of 2025 and finish them in 2026, with the first wells coming on stream by the end of 2025 via subsea tie-back to the FPSO Jotun. The Balder field is operated by Vår Energi (90%) with Kistos Energy Norway as its partner (10%).

The firm’s Balder X project, targeting a start-up in Q2 2025, is set to recover around 200 million barrels of additional reserves from the Balder-Ringhorne area, where the Norwegian player is working to prolong the production lifetime to 2045, as part of the Balder Future re-development project in the North Sea.