Equinor and its Fram partners will invest more than $2 billion (NOK 21 billion) in a new subsea development. The plan for development and operation was today submitted to the Minister of Energy, Terje Aasland.
The Troll C platform, North Sea. Image provided by Equinor
“Fram Sør will contribute to security of energy supply from the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS) to Europe,” said Geir Tungesvik, Equinor’s executive vice president, Projects, Drilling & Procurement. “The development will put new oil and gas resources on stream by connecting new infrastructure to existing facilities that provide good and robust profitability. With the host platform Troll C being powered from shore, the production from Fram Sør will have very low emissions. The project will generate activity for the Norwegian supply industry, with an estimated employment effect of 4,500 full-time equivalents (FTEs) during the development period,”
The Fram Sør project is a combined development of several discoveries that will export oil and gas via Troll C. Recoverable volumes are estimated at 116 MMboe, 75% of which is oil and 25% is gas. Production is scheduled to start at the end of 2029.
Equinor holds 45% interest in Fram, along with partners Vår Energi ASA (40% interest) and INPEX Idemitsu Norge AS (15% interest).
“We have done a thorough job maturing the new resources discovered in the Fram and Troll area in recent years,” said Kjetil Hove, Equinor’s executive vice president for Exploration & Production Norway. “Fram Sør shows the importance of area solutions and close collaboration between partners and authorities in order to realize the resource values on a mature NCS. We have a large portfolio of projects that will phase in discoveries to our producing fields. Equinor expects to put more than 50 such projects on stream by 2035.”
In the autumn of 2019, Equinor and partners made a discovery of oil and gas in the Fram area of the North Sea. This discovery, called Echino South, supported the belief that more oil could be found, and contributed to nine discoveries made in the Troll-Fram area over a four-year period. In the spring of 2021, Equinor and partners made the Blasto discovery. Together with two smaller discoveries in previous years, Echino South and Blasto form the basis for Fram Sør.
The field development is also technologically groundbreaking, Equinor stated. As the first on the NCS, Fram Sør will use all-electric Christmas trees that eliminate the need for hydraulic fluid supplied from the platform and improve monitoring capabilities of the subsea equipment. It is an efficient and reliable system for operating subsea Christmas trees, as well as reducing the risk of environmental impact.
