OneSubsea has secured two contracts from Vår Energi covering production expansion and infrastructure work at the Balder and Goliat fields on the Norwegian Continental Shelf.
The awards include subsea equipment for new Balder wells and gas export infrastructure at Goliat, with both programmes intended to increase recovery and extend the productive life of established offshore developments.
At Goliat, OneSubsea will design and deliver equipment enabling gas exports from the floating production, storage, and offloading vessel. The system will connect with the Snøhvit and Melkøya liquefied natural gas infrastructure, providing an alternative to continued gas reinjection.
Gas has previously been reinjected to support reservoir management and avoid flaring, but export infrastructure allows the resource to enter the market while supporting future field operations. The project requires reliable subsea connections, controls, flow assurance, and integration with facilities already in service.
The Balder Next New Wells programme includes four subsea well systems using single-can satellite configurations, together with umbilicals and associated production equipment. OneSubsea will also provide processing technology and multiphase meters across the work packages.
Backed by SLB, Aker Solutions, and Subsea7, OneSubsea combines subsea production systems, engineering, installation knowledge, and life-of-field services within one operating organisation.
Existing infrastructure shapes new investment
Brownfield development continues to dominate a substantial share of activity on the Norwegian Continental Shelf, where operators are adding wells, tiebacks, compression, processing, and export capacity around established assets rather than constructing entirely new production hubs.
Using existing platforms, pipelines, shore terminals, and operating organisations can reduce capital requirements and shorten schedules, while smaller reservoirs become viable when they can connect to infrastructure already in place.
Integration remains technically demanding because new systems must work with assets designed years or decades earlier. Accurate records of interfaces, capacity, structural condition, control architecture, and remaining life are essential before new equipment can be introduced.
Space, weight, pressure, power, and processing limits often constrain the available options, while shutdown periods must be managed carefully to protect current production. Subsea layouts also restrict where new wells, flowlines, and control equipment can be installed.
Multiphase metering supports reservoir management by measuring oil, gas, and water production without first separating the fluids. Reliable data allows operators to optimise wells, allocate production, and identify changing reservoir conditions earlier.
Subsea processing can improve recovery by managing pressure or handling fluids closer to the well. As reservoirs mature, declining pressure and increasing water production reduce the effectiveness of facilities configured for earlier field conditions.
Norway’s relatively consistent offshore investment has combined new developments with life extension and infrastructure-led exploration, supporting a supplier base that covers equipment, fabrication, vessels, controls, digital systems, engineering, and maintenance.
The UK North Sea retains comparable capability but faces a less predictable project outlook. Current work, including expanded decommissioning activity on the Beryl field, demonstrates the scale of late-life engineering demand, although abandonment programmes cannot replace every capability sustained by continuing development and production.
Goliat’s gas export connection also adds supply to established European energy infrastructure without the construction timetable associated with a completely new field. Existing assets still require inspection, integrity management, and selective replacement if their operating lives are to be extended safely.
Manufacturers are increasing the use of standardised subsea equipment to shorten delivery and reduce engineering effort, although each field retains specific reservoir, fluid, and interface conditions. Modularity can accelerate projects only when it is supported by careful application engineering.
The two contracts span production hardware, measurement, controls, and export infrastructure, placing considerable emphasis on interface management between new equipment and operating facilities. Disruption must be minimised while installation and commissioning proceed around current production.
Mature offshore regions are likely to generate a growing share of engineering work through additional wells, tiebacks, infrastructure reuse, and life extension. Individual projects may be smaller than new production hubs, but their frequency and technical demands create a durable market for suppliers able to integrate new systems with ageing assets.
