Vår Energi selects Seadrill rig for Balder Future drilling

Norwegian oil company Vår Energi has chartered Seadrill’s West Phoenix offshore drilling rig for operations at its Balder field in the North Sea, offshore Norway.

Vår Energi said Saturday that the semi-submersible drilling unit would be used on the Balder Future re-development project in the North Sea.

The company last week filed a development plan for the Balder Future project that is expected to prolong the production lifetime of the Balder and Ringhorne fields’ production lifetime to 2045.

The West Phoenix drilling rig has been selected to drill new production- and injection wells on the Balder field in the period Q2 2021 to Q3 2023.

According to Seadrill, total contract value for the firm portion of the contract for the West Phoenix is expected to be around $302 million with start expected at the end of 2Q 2021 and running through 3Q 2023. Bassoe Offshore has calculated the dayrate to be around $360,000.

Vår Energi VP Operations, Rune Oldervoll: “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.