Halliburton lands five-year deal for offshore drilling services

Oilfield services giant Halliburton has been picked for a long-term strategic partnership, covering drilling services related to exploration and production drilling across Vår Energi’s portfolio on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS).

While announcing this deal, Vår Energi said that the partnership with Halliburton was formed for drilling services to further improve drilling and well performance and enhance value creation. The contract has a duration of five years with extension options for an additional four years in total.

Torger Rød, Vår Energi CEO, commented: “Halliburton represents world-class technical expertise and capabilities combined with extensive experience in areas of high strategic importance to our activities. Vår Energi aims to be the partner of choice. We seek operational excellence in everything we do and are committed to building strong, long-term strategic partnerships in all key business areas.”

Moreover, Vår Energi claims that its strategic partnership with Halliburton builds on an already established collaboration model with clear incentives to work as an integrated team toward common goals. The company further underscores that succeeding together through close end-to-end collaboration and standardisation of the supply chain are key elements of this principle.

Jeff Miller, Halliburton Chairman, President, and CEO, stated: “Halliburton has extensive experience and proven capabilities from operations in Norway over many years. Halliburton’s value proposition – to collaborate and engineer solutions to maximise asset values for our customers – fits perfectly with Vår Energi’s ambitious growth plans.”

Furthermore, Vår Energi explains that its activities span the entire NCS with a diversified portfolio of 158 licenses and 39 producing fields. The firm’s drilling activities are focused around four strategic hubs in the Balder/Grane area, the North Sea, the Norwegian Sea, and the Barents Sea.

Discovered in 1967, the Balder field has been developed with subsea wells tied back to the Balder production, storage and offloading vessel (FPSO). The initial plan for development and operation (PDO) was approved in 1996 and production started in 1999. A revised PDO for Balder and Ringhorne, which was approved in June 2020, includes a lifetime extension and relocation of the FPSO Jotun, and the drilling of new subsea wells.

Vår Energi plans to extend the lifetime of the Balder field through the Balder X project, in a bid to extend production from the Balder hub beyond 2045. To this end, the company has four ongoing projects, including the Balder FPU life extension through a vessel upgrade and drilling new wells on the Ringhorne III and Ringhorne IV projects.

The firm’s plan for the Balder field also entails an upgrade of the FPSO Jotun and the drilling of 14 new production wells along with one water injection well. In addition, the firm is considering drilling new exploration wells in the area. In September 2022, Vår Energi changed the cost estimate for the project, underlining that the first oil from Balder X would be in the third quarter of 2024, rather than in late 2023, as was previously expected.

Ingrid Sølvberg, EVP Technology, Drilling and Subsurface, remarked: “We are on track to deliver on our end-2025 production target, an increase of more than 50 per cent from today’s level. Combined with our proven best-in-class exploration capabilities, teaming up with Halliburton will be a key enabler in meeting our ambitious long-term growth targets.

“Collaboration with strong partners will be a driving force in technology development, contribute to reducing costs and emissions, while also improving efficiency and HSE performance.”