28-year-old FPSO secures life extension beyond 2030 as oil flows from subsea tie-back

December 4, 2025, by Melisa Cavcic

Norwegian state-owned energy giant Equinor has prolonged the lifespan of a floating production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) unit by expanding its active duty past 2030 with a subsea template tied back to the vessel via a new tubing off the coast of Norway.

FPSO Norne; Credit: Gudmund Nymoen/Equinor

Equinor, as the operator of the Verdande subsea development, got the go-ahead at the end of 2022 to replenish oil for the FPSO Norne through this project, which comprises the Cape Vulture and Alve North-East discoveries, proven in 2017 and 2020, respectively. The field was slated to come online in the fourth quarter of 2025.

The operator and its partners believe that the extended lifespan at Norne has the potential to enable increased recovery, corresponding to 11 million barrels of oil equivalent until 2035 with production from the subsea tie-back project.

With this in mind, production started on December 2, 2025, from the Verdande subsea field in the Norwegian Sea, which helps extend Norne’s production beyond 2030, thanks to reserves of 36 million barrels of oil.

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Trond Bokn, Senior Vice President for Project Development at Equinor, commented: “I am proud that, in close collaboration with our licence partners and suppliers, we have delivered the Verdande project on schedule, less than three years after the partnership made the investment decision.

“Fast and cost-efficient field developments like this – where smaller discoveries are realised through smart use of existing infrastructure – are key to further developing the Norwegian continental shelf.”

According to Equinor, investments in Verdande amount to just over NOK 6 billion (around $600 million), and the project has generated significant ripple effects for the Norwegian supplier industry.

The Norwegian Continental Shelf is changing, and many of the fields being developed are smaller subsea fields tied back to existing infrastructure, as this approach is believed to reduce both costs and environmental footprint.

Grete B. Haaland, Senior Vice President for Exploration and Production North at Equinor, highlighted: “So far, we have tied six subsea fields back to the Norne FPSO, including Andvare, which started up in September, and now Verdande. Verdande helps extend the lifetime, value creation and ripple effects from Norne operations.

“More than 900 full-time equivalents are linked to Norne operations. By developing smaller discoveries around established fields, we maximise resource recovery and extend the lifetime of existing infrastructure. This is good resource management and good socioeconomics.”

Located about 7 kilometers north of the Norne field and around 200 kilometers from Sandnessjøen, Verdande is primarily an oil field with some associated gas, which has been developed with three wells in a template tied back to the Norne field via a pipeline.

The license owners are Equinor (operator, 59.3%), Petoro (22.4%), DNO Norge (10.5%), Aker BP (3.5%), Japex Norge (3.5%) and Orlen Upstream Norway (0.8%). However, DNO Norge has agreed to acquire Aker BP and Orlen Upstream Norway’s equity interests, subject to government approval.

The oil from Norne is shipped by shuttle tankers, and gas will be transported via Åsgard Transport to Kårstø. TechnipFMC supplied subsea production equipment, with engineering and project management carried out in Kongsberg, where the subsea control module was also built.

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The template and manifold were manufactured by Agility in Tønsberg, with suction anchors from Westcon Helgeland in Nesna. Modifications to Norne enabling the FPSO to receive oil from Verdande were carried out by Aibel and managed from its Harstad office, with subcontracting from Momek in Mo i Rana.

The pipelines were assembled and spooled onto Subsea7’s installation vessel at the company’s base in Vigra, and a consortium of Subsea7 and DeepOcean from Haugesund handled all subsea installation work. Engineering and project management for Subsea7’s operations were carried out in Stavanger.

Both modifications and drilling operations increased activity at the subsea workshop and supply base in Sandnessjøen – and at the helicopter base in Brønnøysund. The drilling operations were carried out by the Transocean Encourage rig and well services were delivered by Halliburton. The control cable was supplied by OneSubsea in Moss.