Equinor and its partners have submitted a subsea development plan to tie Fram Sør back to the Troll C platform in the southern North Sea.
Operator Equinor and partner Vår Energi on 26 June announced submitting the $2.08 billion (NOK 21 billion) development plan to the Norway Minister of Energy, with production expected to begin by the end of 2029.
Kjetil Hove, Equinor's executive vice president for exploration and production Norway, said in a press release that the company had “done a thorough job maturing the new resources discovered in the Fram and Troll area in recent years. 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.”
The Norwegian company expects to bring more than 50 such projects online by 2035, he added.
The Fram Sør project, in approximately 350-m water depth, aims to develop several discoveries, sending their hydrocarbons to the Troll C platform about 20 km away. Equinor estimates recoverable volumes of 116 million BOE, of which 75% is oil and the remainder is gas, and the CO2 intensity for the Fram Sør development at about 0.5 kg of CO2 per BOE.
In a press release, Vår Energi COO Torger Rød called the Fram Sør project a “great example of industry collaboration on the NCS (Norwegian Continental Shelf), optimizing value creation through clever use of existing infrastructure.”
Vår Energi said follow-on exploration targets are set to be drilled in the coming years to build on the recent Mulder and Rhombi discoveries with the goal of unlocking further potential upside. Vår Energi estimates prospective unrisked resources in the area at more than 200 million BOE gross.
Tieback Plan, Contracts
Discoveries grouped into the project north of the Troll C platform include the 2019 Echino South find and the 2021 Blasto find, as well as two other smaller finds. The Fram Sør project lies across production licenses PL 090, PL 090I, and PL 090E. The reservoir itself is between 1800 and 2800 m deep.
The development plan calls for using all-electric subsea Christmas trees in 4×4 subsea templates. Twelve wells are planned for startup, leaving four well slots available for later development in the area. The templates will be tied back to the Troll C platform for processing ahead of export. Oil will be transported through Troll Oil Pipeline II to Mongstad, while gas will be exported to Kollsnes via the Troll A platform.
Equinor has completed front-end engineering and design with Aker Solutions for platform modification, OneSubsea for subsea systems, Subsea7 for marine installation, and TechnipFMC for umbilicals, and all have the option to perform the work they have studied.
Throughout the remainder of 2025, Equinor anticipates awarding contracts for pipe deliveries, fiber-optic cable, and rock installation. In addition, the project will need rig capacity. Equinor expects to award about $1.79 billion (NOK 18 billion) in contracts, subject to regulatory approval.
Equinor operates the Fram project with 45% interest on behalf of partners Vår Energi with 40% and INPEX Idemitsu Norge with 15%.
