Equinor Is Ready to Begin Drilling Work at the Johan Castberg Field in the Barents Sea
The Norwegian Ocean Industry Authority (Havtil) has granted Equinor permission to drill at the Johan Castberg field in the Barents Sea. Havtil reports.
Transocean Enabler
Drilling operations will be carried out using a semi-submersible drilling rig (SSDR) Transocean Enabler:
- built at the South Korean shipyard Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering in 2016;
- previous name – Songa Enabler;
- operated by Songa Offshore before Transocean took over the company in 2018;
- capable of operating at a depth of 500 m;
- maximum drilling depth – 8.5 thousand m;
- design – GVA 4000 NCS;
- accommodates 130 people.
Transocean Enabler has been performing drilling work for Equinor for many years. The last contract for the construction of 19 wells was signed several months ago. The agreement also includes an option for another 8 wells. The total value of the contract is estimated at $415 million, with a fixed portion of $295 million.
Johan Castberg field
- located in the Barents Sea, 100 km northwest of the Snøhvit field, in blocks 7219/9 and 7220/4, 5, 7, approximately 240 km from Melkøya and 150 km from Goliat;
- sea depth at the subsoil site – 370 m;
- Johan Castberg project: consists of the Skrugard (discovered April 2011), Havis (January 2012), and Drivis (May 2014) deposits. Skrugard and Havis are 7 km apart. Johan Castberg project designed to produce 220 thousand barrels/day of oil.
The Plan of Development and Operation (PDO) was approved in June 2018. The project development concept involves the use of a floating production, storage and offloading unit (FPSO), to which 30 wells will be connected (18 horizontal production wells and 12 injection wells) . The start of production is planned for 2024.
Initially, the project launch was planned for the 4th quarter. 2022, but was postponed due to delays and cost overruns. The Barents Sea may contain about 60% of Norway’s undiscovered oil and natural gas reserves.
In 2023, the Norwegian government held the next APA licensing round, during which 92 subsoil blocks were allocated on the kingdom’s continental shelf, incl. 78 blocks in the Barents Sea and 14 blocks in the Norwegian Sea. Based on the results of APA-2023, Equinor received 18 production licenses in the North Sea, 13 in the Norwegian Sea and 8 in the Barents Sea.
