Equinor has discovered a new field in the Barents Sea
Equinor and its partners have discovered a new oil field near Johan Castberg in the Barents Sea, with reserves estimated at up to 10.5 million barrels. They are considering connecting it to the existing infrastructure.
Petrus
Equinor and its partners have discovered a new oil field in the Johan Castberg area on the Norwegian section of the Barents Sea.
Johan Castberg is a major oil field that began production in March of this year. The new discovery was made at the promising Skrugard North Tuben structure, located about six kilometers north of the main Johan Castberg well. According to the Norwegian Offshore Directorate, reserves at the new site are estimated to be between 7.6 and 10.5 million barrels of oil equivalent.
There are plans to potentially connect the new field to the Johan Castberg infrastructure.
The license holders for PL 532 are Equinor (operator) with a 46.3% stake, Vår Energi with 30%, and Petoro with 23.7%. Drilling at the new site was carried out using the Transocean Enabler semi-submersible rig at a depth of 361 meters.
In the first half of the year, Johan Castberg experienced production interruptions. Vår Energi’s second-quarter report noted issues with the offloading hose on the floating production storage and offloading vessel, which were resolved in early January. However, at the end of the second quarter, production was again halted due to problems with the FPSO’s power supply system. After these issues were fixed, production resumed in mid-July and is currently stable.
Vår Energi’s average daily net production at Johan Castberg in the second quarter was 60,000 barrels of oil equivalent, corresponding to a gross output of about 200,000 barrels per day.