Equinor Energy AS will soon begin hook-up of the Johan Castberg floating production, storage and offloading vessel (FPSO) to subsea infrastructure now that the vessel is securely anchored on Johan Castberg field in the Barents Sea.
The FPSO, expected to begin production by yearend, is 313 m long, 55 m wide, and 120 m high. Its design storage capacity is 1.1 million bbl of oil.
Johan Castberg oil field holds estimated recoverable volumes of 450-650 million bbl and is expected to produce for 30 years. The field contains discoveries Skrugard, Havis, and Drivis, which were made between 2011 and 2013. At its peak, the field may produce 220,000 b/d, Equinor said.
The field development concept includes 30 wells distributed across 10 subsea templates and two satellites that will now be tied back to the FPSO. So far, 13 of these wells have been drilled, and drilling operations will continue into 2026.
Johan Castberg lies 240 km northwest of Hammerfest, 100 km northwest of Snøhvit field in 370 m of water. The field has a supply and helicopter base in Hammerfest and an operations organization in Harstad.
"Johan Castberg is important for our development plans in Northern Norway. When the field comes on stream, a new province will be opened for oil recovery in the Barents Sea. This provides new opportunities for the exploration for and development of new discoveries in the area. Working with our partners we are already maturing five discoveries towards a possible tie-in to Johan Castberg," said Grete Birgitte Haaland, Equinor's senior vice-president for Northern Norway.
Equinor is operator of the Johan Castberg license with 50% interest. Partners are Vår Energi ASA (30%) and Petoro AS (20%).