New Subsea Infrastructure at Troll-Fram to Bring More Oil and Gas to Europe
June 26, 2025
Equinor and its Fram partners will invest over $2 billion in a new subsea development, dubbed Fram Sør project, to put more oil and gas resources on stream by connecting the new infrastructure to the existing facilities at Fram and Troll area.
The plan for development and operation of the Fram Sør project was submitted to the Minister of Energy, Terje Aasland.
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 million barrels of oil equivalent, 75 percent of which is oil and 25 percent is gas. Production is scheduled to start at the end of 2029.
The CO2 intensity for the Fram Sør development is estimated at about 0.5 kg of CO2 per barrel of oil equivalent. The average for the NCS is 8 kg, compared to the industry average of about 16 kg per barrel of oil equivalent (IOGP 2023).
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.
The Fram Sør investments will contribute to the Norwegian supply industry both in the development and operation phases. In total, the contracts will have a value of about $1.77 billion (NOK 18 billion). All contracts will be subject to regulatory approval.
Fram Sør is located in the northern part of the North Sea, around 20 km north of Troll C and 120 km northwest of Bergen. The water depth in the area is approx. 350 metres, and the reservoir depth is between 1800 – 2800 metres.
Fram Sør is a subsea development with 4 by 4 subsea templates. Twelve wells are planned for start-up and four well slots will be available for later development in the Fram/Troll area.
The subsea templates will be tied back to existing Fram infrastructure and to the Troll C platform for processing and export.
Oil from the Fram field is transported through Troll Oil Pipeline II to Mongstad, and gas is exported to Kollsnes via the Troll A platform.
Equinor has completed the front-end engineering and design phase (FEED) with four main suppliers, all of whom have the option to perform the work they have studied.
OneSubsea has conducted studies of subsea systems, Subsea7 explored marine installation, TechnipFMC studied umbilicals, while Aker Solutions studied platform modification.
During 2025, contracts will also be awarded for pipe deliveries, fibre optic cable and rock installation. In addition, the project will need rig capacity.
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.
Fram partners include Equinor (45%), Vår Energi (40%) and INPEX Idemitsu Norge AS (15%).
