The Petroleum Safety Authority Norway (PSA) has given consent to ExxonMobil to use another subsea well, on the Balder field, designated E-29-AH.
Balder field is located in block 25/11 in the North Sea, around 190 km west of Stavanger.
In 2013, the PSA granted consent to use six new subsea wells on the field. The new well is around 3,500 metres from Balder floating production unit (FPU).
The Balder field belongs to production licence PL 001. The first oil discovery on the Norwegian Continental Shelf was made in this field back in 1967. At the time, the discovery was not assessed to be commercially viable. Around 30 years later, new investigations were undertaken that resulted in the field being developed and produced from, starting in 1999.
The Balder field has been developed using subsea wells and a floating production unit (FPU). Originally, production was estimated to last until 2011. Partly as a result of the Ringhorne field being tied back to Balder FPU in 2006, ExxonMobil received consent to extend the facility’s operating life to 2025.