On October 9, the Norwegian Minister of Petroleum and Energy, Kjell-Børge Freiberg, officially opened the power-from-shore solution which will provide the Johan Sverdrup field in the North Sea with electricity for more than 50 years.
The development of Johan Sverdrup in the North Sea has been through the busiest installation campaign ever for a field in the North Sea. With electric power supplied from shore Johan Sverdrup operations can run without the use of fossil fuels.
Jez Averty, senior vice president for operations in the south of the North Sea, commented on the occasion:
With estimated resources of up to 3,2 billion barrels, and a production horizon of more than 50 years, it is key that Johan Sverdrup production is as effective as possible with the lowest possible emissions.
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Johan Sverdrup’s production is expected to reach 660,000 barrels of oil per day at plateau, with CO2 emissions of only 0.67 kg per barrel. Thus, power from shore to Johan Sverdrup will reduce emissions by about 460,000 tonnes of CO2 per year.
In phase 1 of the Johan Sverdrup development, the power-from-shore solution will have a capacity of 100 MW, based on a production capacity of up to 440,000 barrels per day.
In phase 2 the power from shore capacity will be expanded with 200 MW, giving a total capacity of 300 MW. This enables Johan Sverdrup to enable access to power from shore to the other fields at Utsira High – Edvard Grieg, Gina Krog og Ivar Aasen.
The expanded power capacity will also be important for the additional Johan Sverdrup production capacity of 220,000 barrels per day, and the total full field production capacity of 660,000 barrels daily.
