Norway’s Equinor to drill new Arctic well in Barents Sea
The company intends to add resources to its Johan Castberg project.
The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate has approved Equinor’s well drilling at license area 532 in the Barents Sea. The well will be spud by rig «Transocean Enabler», the directorate informs.
The area is located about 25 km south of Johan Castberg, the field that was discovered in 2011 and that is to come into production in year 2022.
The «Transocean Enabler» is now located in the Norwegian Sea, off the coast of Trondheim. It is expected to move towards the Barents Sea in early 2020.
The waters around the Johan Castberg field are now the main regional priority of Equinor after it in November this year announced that it will abandon areas located further east in the Barents Sea.
The Johan Castberg includes three adjacent structures and holds 81 standard cubic meters of oil. Several more prospective discoveries have later been made in the area, among them in an area about 10 km north of the field.
The Johan Castberg holds up to 650 million barrels of oil and is among Equinor’s biggest new development projects. It is located on 72 degrees north and will be the northernmost field in production in the Barents Sea.
Equinor in 2017 announced that it will spend about 49 billion NOK (€ 4.9 billion) on the development of the project.
Development will happen with a floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel and the oil will be brought directly to markets with shuttle tankers.
There are currently two other offshore fields in production in the Norwegian part of the Barents Sea, the Snøhvit gas field and oil field Goliat.
Related stories from around the North:
Canada: Canadian feds return $430M to oil and gas companies ahead of Arctic offshore exploration ban, CBC News
China: US sanctions against Chinese shipping company could hurt Russia’s LNG exports, The Independent Barents Observer
Norway: Equinor drops plan for oil transfer terminal at Veidnes in northern Norway, The Independent Barents Observer
Russia: Putin’s new Arctic law paves way for biggest ever industrialization in Northern Russia, The Independent Barents Observer
United States: Seattle council votes to withhold business from oil companies that explore Arctic Refuge, Alaska Public Media
