Norway Powers Ahead with All-Electric Oilfields

Fram Sør swaps hydraulics for electric controls, cutting costs and emissions in a nod to Norway’s greener offshore ambitions.

2 Jul 2025

The North Sea is no stranger to reinvention. Its latest shift comes not in the form of new oil discoveries but in how the old fields are operated. Fram Sør, a mature oil and gas site off the coast of Norway, will become the country’s first to rely entirely on all-electric subsea technology.

Announced on June 26th, the project replaces decades-old hydraulic systems with electric controls, delivering both power and high-speed data through a single cable. By eliminating the need for hydraulic fluids, it reduces the risk of spills and simplifies maintenance, a rare combination of environmental and operational gain in the carbon-heavy offshore sector.

SLB OneSubsea has been tasked with the system’s design. Subsea 7, TechnipFMC and Aker Solutions are also involved in engineering studies, with contracts for fibre-optic cables still to be awarded. Operators hope that the streamlined infrastructure will lower costs by as much as 15 percent. This would be a welcome reprieve as extraction from ageing fields becomes increasingly uneconomical.

Norway’s energy planners see more than just operational savings. Fram Sør aligns with the country’s broader digitalisation and decarbonisation goals, offering a blueprint for smarter and lower-emission production. Yet retrofitting older platforms will not be straightforward. Industry insiders acknowledge the technical hurdles of replacing entrenched systems in ageing infrastructure.

Even so, enthusiasm is building. “This is a defining moment,” says an industry executive, pointing to the technology’s potential to make offshore operations leaner and less polluting. The promise of fewer moving parts, lower maintenance demands and tighter digital monitoring offers companies a way to prolong field life without expanding their environmental footprint.

For Norway, long a leader in both oil extraction and environmental regulation, Fram Sør’s electrification offers a glimpse of an offshore future that is not just cleaner but also cheaper, a rare combination in the energy world.