This is what Equinor thinks the next oil field in the Barents Sea will look like – E24

Equinor is already in the process of developing the Johan Castberg oil field in the Barents Sea. The field is a year behind schedule, thanks a lot to the corona pandemic and how it has affected work at the Singapore shipyard.

At the same time, the company is working at a rapid pace with the Wisting field to meet the “tax deadline” on the Storting’s oil tax package before the summer. It dictates that development plans must be submitted to authorities by the end of 2022.

– The tax package has a positive effect on the project and we want to mature it until the investment decision in late 2022, says Trond Bokn, Acting Director of Project Development at Equinor for E24.

On Thursday, the company announced that they are now launching a series of study contracts for the Wisting field, which will be the next and third oil field in the Barents Sea.

Goliath first arrived in 2016 and in 2023, Johan Castberg’s project is scheduled to go into production.

The final choice of the concept is scheduled for the second quarter of next year, but Equinor is already launching a new product. The actual decision on whether or not to carry out the Wisting investment will only take place once in the fall of 2022.

The company is targeting a cylindrical floating production unit (FPSO). Equinor and its partners therefore do not opt ​​for a boat-shaped FPSO that was chosen for the Johan Castberg field.

Oil daily Upstream reported in late October and is now confirmed by Equinor.

Power sets guides

In 2019, Equinor assumed responsibility as operator for OMV development. The Austrian company will remain the operator in the operational phase.

At the time, OMV evaluated both the shape of a boat and the shape of a cylinder, and at Johan Castberg, Equinor chose a boat shape. When E24 asks why they point to a cylindrical shape in Wisting, Bokn lists several reasons:

• The possibilities of electrification
• You avoid a complicated turntable like in Johan Castberg
• You can use smaller steel
• It is very stable in rough seas and bad weather.

– You’ve talked about seeing reusable value in Johan Castberg’s design at Wisting, Bay du Nord in Canada, and Rosebank on the British platform. Do you understand now?

– We still see Castberg reusable value in the wallet and the helmet is just one item. We will continue to benefit from the Castberg project in the development of Wisting, says Bokn.

– But it is clear that a low carbon footprint has become even more important to us since Castberg was decided, he adds.

Technically, it is much easier to pull a power cord on a cylindrical FPSO than it is on the hull of a ship spinning in the wind. The Goliath field is already electrified in this way.

The fact that Equinor now wants an even more climate-friendly project is due to the company’s big ambitions to cut emissions on the Norwegian platform in half by 2030 and cut them to zero by 2050.

However, Electrifying Wisting will be revolutionary. The field is located about 300 kilometers from land, almost double that of Martin Linge, who set a record with his power cable from land.

– With the production outlook and internal climate ambitions we have, a low carbon footprint is very important for Wisting, says Bokn.

– Now we are pointing out a direction for the electrification of this project, but it will be demanding to carry it out, partly because of the distance and the voltage level it requires, he continues.

Bokn points out that Equinor has established a collaboration with Statnett to have a good dialogue and obtain the necessary power. Equinor is also working on the electrification of Melkøya, so the need for energy in Finnmark may be great in the future.

Giant development in the north with unknown price

Equinor estimates that there are around 440 million barrels of oil equivalent in Wisting. Trond Bokn says the company will not comment on whether there are discoveries or potential in the area that could raise this number.

– In our work, we have also matured the resource base and this confirms the resource estimates that OMV prepared, says Bokn.

Bokn says Equinor currently doesn’t want to say anything about what it may cost to develop the Wisting field so early in the process.

It has been speculated that the project could finish roughly in an area of ​​around NOK 40 billion, based on what the previous fields have cost.

In reality, the Goliath field was supposed to cost between 28 and 32.6 billion and would be in production in 2013, but production did not start until the spring of 2016. By then, the bill had risen to 50.8 billion, according to budget documents of the Ministry of Oil and Energy.

Equinor will do everything in its power to prevent this.

Bokn does not hide the fact that Equinor is concerned about mobilizing for a “collaboration” between the company and the suppliers now to ensure that a good and complete project is ready for an investment decision by the end of 2022.

– The choice of the concept is much more than the choice of the helmet. The helmet is perhaps the most visible, but there is much more that also needs to mature. So for example we also deliver study contracts for subsea systems so that we can get a good overall concept for the field. That’s what’s important, says Bokn.

– We have done capacity assessments at the facility, but we also need good plans for implementation, how build friendly the concept is and how we can break down development into responsive work packages that are tailored to the capacity of the supplying industry , keep going.

It will be the debut of the Equinor cylinder

– This will be the first time that Equinor possibly becomes a development operator for this type of FPSO. This makes the need for maturation especially important to us and we have gained experience from other operators, says Bokn.

Vår Energi is the operator of the Goliat field, which is the first and only oil field so far to use a floating cylindrical production unit on the Norwegian shelf.

Equinor is a partner and Bokn says they have learned a lot from both Goliath and other cylindrical fields from FPSO.

The Goliath field ended in a gigantic invasion, it was long delayed. Equinor has learned as much from the mistakes that were made in the implementation, as well as benefited from experiences with the technical concept itself, he notes.

Read more about the history of the discovery of Wisting: