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Equinor reports Barents Sea oil

discovery near Castberg

NORWAY NORWEGIAN state oil group Equinor has infrastructure-led exploration strategy in the
struck oil near the Johan Castberg oilfield, mark- Barents Sea, providing additional high value for
Norway has meanwhile ing a rare success that follows a string of explora- the Johan Castberg project.”
sanctioned Equinor’s tion failures in the frontier Barents Sea this year.
Northern Lights Equinor’s well, drilled some 230 km north- Northern Lights update
venture. west of Hammerfest, encountered a 109-metre In other welcome news for Equinor, Norway’s
oil section in early Jurassic age Sto and Nordmela petroleum ministry has sanctioned a develop-
layer, without striking into a gas cap as antici- ment plan for the Northern Lights CO2 trans-
pated. The company estimates the find’s size at port and storage scheme, it announced on March
between 31mn and 50mn barrels. 9.
“Further development of the discovery The approval comes after Norway’s parlia-
towards the planned infrastructure for the Johan ment in January signed off on the broader Long-
Castberg field will be considered at a later stage,” ship project, which encompasses both Northern
Equinor’s senior vice-president for Norwegian Lights and CO2 capture operations onshore
exploration, Nick Ashton, said in a statement. Norway. The government has now signed final
“The proven resources may thus generate impor- agreements with Equinor and its Northern
tant additional value and tax revenues for society Lights partners Royal Dutch Shell and Total on
from the Johan Castberg field.” state support for the scheme.
The 400-650mn barrel Castberg field is due Northern Lights will receive liquefied CO2
to start up in 2023, a year behind schedule and arriving via ship at Oygarden, regasify it and
NOK2.8bn ($331mn) above the original budget. then pipe it offshore for storage some 2,600
Equinor has drilled a number of wells in the Bar- metres under the seabed. The first stage, esti-
ents Sea in the hope of tying back more resources mated to cost NOK6bn ($708mn), will store up
to the project, but these efforts have been largely to 1.5mn tonnes per year (tpy) of CO2 from a
unsuccessful. Other operators including Lundin cement factory and a waste-to-power plant in
Energy and Spirit Energy have suffered a num- Norway. The second stage will ramp up capacity
ber of dry wells in the Barents Sea during the past to 5mn tpy.
year as well. Equinor and its partners are in talks with a
The new find was made at production licence number of European companies to make use of
532, operated by Equinor with a 50% stake, with this extra capacity, the ministry said, and have
partners Var Energi and Petoro owning shares already signed memoranda on CO2 storage with
of 30% and 20% respectively. Eni, the majority eight firms. “I believe more will want to connect
owner of Var Energi, was unequivocal in its own to the storage now that the project has been
statement that the discovery “will” be tied back approved,” Petroleum Minister Tina Bru said in
to Castberg. It “confirms Var Energi’s successful a statement. ™

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