Vaar Energi and partners to develop 3 oil, gas discoveries off Norway for $1.4 billion

OSLO, June 25 (Reuters) - Vaar Energi and its partners will invest about 14 billion crowns ($1.42 billion) to develop three oil and gas discoveries in the Gjoea area offshore Norway, according to plans submitted to the energy ministry on Thursday.

The discoveries - Cerisa, Gjoea Nord and Ofelia - in the northern part of the North Sea will be developed via subsea installations tied back to the Gjoea field facilities, around 50 km (31 miles) northeast of Norway's largest gas field, Troll.

The projects are expected to add about 76 million barrels of oil equivalent in recoverable resources, the ministry said.

Cerisa is due to start production in 2027, with Gjoea Nord and Ofelia following a year later, the plans showed. 

All three are operated by Vaar Energi, majority-owned by Italy's Eni.

Partners across several offshore licences include Harbour Energy, Okea, Aker BP, DNO, INPEX Idemitsu, Orlen Upstream and state-owned Petoro.Vaar aims to sanction more than a dozen projects this year - all subsea tie-backs - to help sustain its longer-term production at above 400,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.            

($1 = 9.8551 Norwegian crowns)

(Reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis, editing by Gwladys Fouche)