Equinor has delayed again the start-up of its Johan Castberg oilfield in the Barents Sea in the Arctic, due to bad weather, a spokesperson for the Norwegian energy major told Reuters on Monday.
This is the second delay to the start-up of the oilfield, after Equinor in December was forced by bad weather to postpone the launch to January or February 2025 from an initial launch date by the end of 2024.
Now the February 2025 deadline has also slipped, amid persistent bad weather in the Arctic waters of the Barents Sea.
“We are in the final stretch, but have faced challenges with the weather, which is causing problems for both vessel and helicopter traffic,” Equinor’s spokesperson told Reuters today.
Johan Castberg, a large field in the Barents Sea, has estimated recoverable volumes of between 450 and 650 million barrels of crude oil. The resource base for developing the Johan Castberg field consists of the three oil discoveries: Skrugard, Havis, and Drivis.
The field will produce for 30 years, and at its peak, Johan Castberg will be able to produce 220,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil, Equinor says.
Production will be carried out via a floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel, which was anchored on the field in September.
Norway expects its oil liquids production to rise by 5.2% in 2025 from 2024, also thanks to Johan Castberg.
OPEC also considers Norway as one of the producers that would contribute to the rise in oil output from non-OPEC+ countries this year, alongside the United States, Canada, and Brazil.
Yet, further exploration efforts and new discoveries would be crucial to slowing the expected decline in Norway’s oil and gas production in the 2030s, the authorities of Western Europe’s largest oil and gas producer have said in recent years.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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