Offshore staff
STAVANGER, Norway – The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) has granted its consent for start-up of the Equinor-operated Johan Sverdrup field in the North Sea.
Equinor expects the first phase of the field development to start production in November 2019. The field is expected to produce oil for the next 40 years.
According to Ingrid Sølvberg, director development and operations in the NPD, Johan Sverdrup is the third largest oil field on the Norwegian shelf – measured in reserves. Only Statfjord and Ekofisk, both also in the North Sea, are larger.
The field is in blocks 16/2, 16/3, 16/5 and 16/6, 155 km (96 mi) west of Karmøy and 40 km (25 mi) south of the Grane field. The field was discovered by Lundin in the autumn of 2010 through well 16/2-6 (Avaldsnes).
The field comprises production licenses 265, 501, and 502, in addition to 501B.
The Ministry of Petroleum and Energy sanctioned the project in July 2015.
According to Equinor, investment costs for Phase 1 are expected to be NOK83 billion ($9 billion).
Estimates indicate that the total recoverable reserves are about 2.7 Bboe. About 95% of this is oil, 3% is dry gas, and the rest is natural gas liquids. Peak production is expected to reach 660,000 b/d of oil.
Johan Sverdrup is being development in two phases. Phase 1 includes a field center with four bridge-linked platforms, pipelines for transporting oil and gas, the power from shore unit, and three subsea templates for water injection are linked to the riser platform.
Phase 2 consists of a new process platform, five subsea templates connected to the field center, and development of the outer areas of the reservoir. The second phase is expected to start up in 4Q 2022.
Further development of central areas is also planned through additional wells from the drilling platform.
Electric power for normal operation of the Johan Sverdrup field will be supplied from the land-based grid.
Gas and stabilized oil will be transported through a gas pipeline to Statpipe and an oil pipeline to Mongstad, north of Bergen.
09/04/2019
