The Johan Castberg floating production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) vessel went on stream as the northernmost production facility offshore Norway 31 March and reached plateau production of 220,000 B/D on 17 June.
Operator Equinor announced on 20 June the early operation phase of the Barents Sea project had gone according to plan, with the wells that have come onstream producing as expected.
So far, Equinor said, 17 of 30 planned wells have been completed. The 30 wells—18 of which will be horizontal production wells along with 12 injection wells—will be distributed across 10 subsea templates and two satellite structures in water depths of 360 to 390 m.
The FPSO is expected to produce for 30 years. Hydrocarbons flow to the FPSO from the 2011 Skrugard, 2012 Havis, and 2014 Drivis discoveries in production license 532.
According to government-run Norwegian Petroleum database, the discovered reservoirs contain oil with gas caps in three sandstone deposits of Late Triassic to Middle Jurassic age in the Tubåen, Nordmela, and Stø Formations at depths of 1,250 to 1,900 m. Reservoir properties in the Tubåen and Stø Formations are generally good, and the Nordmela Formation is more heterogeneous with several lateral barriers.
The FPSO has capacity to store 1.1 million bbl and periodically offloads hydrocarbons to tankers.
Located 100 km north of the company’s Snøhvit field, Equinor views the FPSO as important production infrastructure in the Barents Sea. Kjetil Hove, Equinor’s executive vice president for exploration and production Norway, said in a press release that the volume associated with the Johan Castberg project was originally estimated at between 450 million and 650 million bbl.
“Our ambition is to increase the reserves by between 250-550 million bbl. We are already planning six new wells to extend plateau production,” he said.
Hove said Equinor expects to reach final investment decision on the offshore Isflak project at the end of 2025 with startup expected in 2028.
“In addition, we will drill one or two exploration wells annually near Johan Castberg,” he said.
Equinor said it plans to keep two rigs drilling new exploration and production wells around the Johan Castberg and Goliat fields.
Field partner Vår Energi said in a news release that the field is contributing 66,000 B/D net to the company at plateau. Vår Energi said Johan Castberg will help the company produce over 400,000 BOE/D in the fourth quarter.
Vår Energi COO Torger Rød said in a news release that the field will contribute to “significant growth and value creation in the years to come with a pay-back time of less than 2 years,” from production startup.
Equinor operates the Johan Castberg project with 43.6% interest on behalf of partners Vår Energi with 30% and Petoro with 23.7%.
