Norwegian offshore safety body, the Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA), has given ExxonMobil a consent to use a new subsea well on the Balder field, offshore Norway.
PSA said on Monday that ExxonMobil has been given consent to use another subsea well, designated E-29-AH located 3,500 meters from the Balder floating production unit (FPU).
The Balder field is operated by ExxonMobil in block 25/11 in the North Sea, around 190 km west of Stavanger.
The Balder field belongs to production license PL 001. The first oil discovery on the Norwegian Continental Shelf in this field was made back in 1967. At the time, the discovery was not assessed to be commercially viable.
Several decades later, new research resulted in the field being developed with production beginning in 1999.
Balder field was developed using subsea wells and an FPU while production was scheduled to last until 2011. Due to the fact that Ringhorne field was being tied back to the Balder FPU in 2006, ExxonMobil was given consent to extend the facility’s operating life to 2025.
This is the second time ExxonMobil has been given consent to use new subsea wells on Balder field after PSA consented to six additional wells in 2013.