Johan Sverdrup field to produce more oil than expected after phase 2 startup

In addition to a reduction in a full-field breakeven oil price, Norway’s Equinor expects to see an increased production capacity at its Johan Sverdrup offshore field following the startup of phase 2 in 4Q 2022.

The update has been shared by Lundin Energy, one of Equinor’s partners in the giant Johan Sverdrup field. It comes just as Equinor revealed a strategy to accelerate its energy transition, under which it will produce less oil and gas in the longer term and invest about $23 billion in renewables over the next five-year period.

Equinor also said it had made further improvements at the Johan Sverdrup field, reducing the break-even price for the full field from less than $20 per boe by 25 per cent to $15.

Lundin Energy said on Tuesday that Equinor, as the operator of Johan Sverdrup, now anticipates a full-field gross production capacity of 755 thousand barrels of oil per day (Mbopd), increased from 720 Mbopd, once phase 2 is on stream.

Lundin also reiterated Equinor’s statement related to the improvement in full-field economics.

Equinor has already increased the capacity at the Johan Sverdrup field twice, with the third one, announced back in January 2021, planned to be completed by mid-2021. The third capacity increase will see the field increase its daily production capacity up to 535,000 barrels of oil, which is around 100,000 barrels more than the original basis at start-up in October 2019.

When it comes to the project development, further progress has been made on the execution of the phase 2 project with the jacket, delivered by Aker Solutions, installed offshore. With this jacket for phase 2 of the project, four out of a total of five jackets have been built and delivered from Aker Solutions’ yard in Verdal

Furthermore, the giant main support frame (MSF) module for the Johan Sverdrup P2 platform left Aibel’s yard in Thailand in April 2021 and the second processing platform was fully assembled in Norway, using the world’s largest crane vessel, Sleipnir.

Now, the completion activities are ongoing ahead of offshore installation scheduled for the second quarter of 2022.

Phase 2 remains on schedule for the first oil in the fourth quarter of 2022 and costs are unchanged from the PDO estimate of NOK 41 billion gross.