Norwegian oil and gas company Equinor and its partners revealed plans for an earlier production start-up from the Johan Sverdrup, one of the largest oil fields in the Norwegian Continental Shelf. The filed is now to start production in October this year, one month ahead of schedule.
The Johan Sverdrup development continues to progress well through the final stages of preparation for operations. As a result, Equinor and its partners Lundin Norway, Petoro, Aker BP and Total, are accelerating the planned schedule for production start-up,
…the company said in an official statement.
This comes as the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate granted its consent for start-up of the Johan Sverdrup field earlier this week.
Since the Plan for development and operation (PDO) for Phase 1 was submitted in 2015, the project has seen a significant cost reduction, as well as an acceleration in the start-up schedule of the large development from late December 2019 to now October.
Around this time last year, we accelerated the expected schedule for production start-up of Johan Sverdrup to November 2019. Now, as we enter the final stretch of the project, we believe it is possible to start production up to one month earlier,
…says Anders Opedal, executive vice president for Technology, projects & drilling in Equinor.
The current focus of the Johan Sverdrup project is on completing the testing of the equipment and systems needed for the full field centre – spanning four platforms and three interconnected bridges and associated modules – to function and perform as one installation.
After reaching plateau for the first phase of the Johan Sverdrup development, expected during the summer of 2020, Equinor expects operating costs below USD 2 per barrel.
