Equinor mulls concept for Barents Sea oil field, hands out study contracts

Norwegian oil and gas player Equinor has awarded contracts for concept studies to further progress the Wisting project development, located in the Barents Sea, towards a final concept select decision.

The Wisting project is located in the Hoop area of the Barents Sea, around 310 kilometres from the Norwegian mainland. Volumes are estimated at 440 million barrels of oil equivalent.

According to Equinor’s announcement on Thursday, suppliers who have been awarded contracts in connection with the start of Wisting concept studies for FPSO are Aker Solutions, KBR, Sevan SSP, and Aibel.

For the SURF (Subsea Production and Processing Equipment, Umbilical, Risers and Flowlines) part, selected suppliers include Aker Solutions, TechnipFMC, OneSubsea Processing, IKM Ocean Design, and Kongsberg Maritime.

Trond Bokn, acting senior vice president for project development in Equinor, said: “Wisting is a considerable oil field in the Barents Sea, and we are cooperating well with our partners in further maturing the project. Founded on experience and synergy potential within the project-portfolio we have assessed different development alternatives to identify potential solutions for a cost-effective and optimal field development”.

“Based on this work, the licence partners have decided to further assess a floating production unit based on a circular FPSO solution. However, a lot of work remains before we can make a final concept select during second quarter of 2021”, said Bokn.

Equinor emphasized that the Wisting partners are focused on reducing the carbon footprint of the production to the lowest extent feasible.

“Electrification is considered a possible option for reducing field emissions. The project will study a power-from-shore solution for a circular FPSO going forward”, said Bokn.

In 2019, the authorities approved a transfer of the Wisting operatorship to Equinor in the development phase, while OMV will resume operatorship in the production phase.

Equinor is leading the development project and personnel from OMV is well integrated into the project organisation.