WATCH: ‘Mighty’ newbuild FPSO eating up the miles toward oil project to embark on its 30-year job

Norwegian state-owned energy giant Equinor is looking forward to the arrival of a new floating production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) vessel at its oil project in the Barents Sea, where the FPSO unit will start its three-decade assignment off the coast of Norway. 

The submission of a plan for development and operation (PDO) for the Johan Castberg project in 2017, with a cost estimate of NOK 57 billion (close to $5.3 billion), made it clear that the project would be brought to life as a subsea field with 30 wells distributed on ten templates and two satellites tied back to the FPSO Johan Castberg.

The vessel’s hull and living quarters were transported from Singapore to Stord for installation and commissioning in 2022, however, the project’s start-up got bumped to Q4 2024 due to delays and cost overruns. In light of these issues, the Johan Castberg partnership, encompassing Equinor, Vår Energi, and Petoro, updated the project’s cost estimate to NOK 80 billion (almost $7.4 billion) in September 2023.

Once the last mooring line that tied the FPSO to the quay at Aker Solutions in Stord was cut on May 30, the vessel left for sea trials in Klosterfjorden, before beginning its journey of close to 1,000 nautical miles from the Norwegian west coast to the Barents Sea, which was slated to take place at the end of summer.

With a daily production capacity of close to 190,000 barrels, the over 300-meter long, 120-meter tall FPSO with a bright orange hull is now on its way to the Johan Castberg field, which is located around 100 km north of the Snøhvit field in the Barents Sea, 150 km from Goliat, and almost 240 km from Melkøya in Hammerfest. The water depth at the site is 360-390 meters.

Vår Energi emphasized: “Great news! The mighty production vessel Johan Castberg FPSO has started its journey northwards to the final field location in the Barents Sea – on track for targeted production start-up in Q4 2024! Congratulations to operator Equinor for achieving this major milestone!

“Johan Castberg is a key catalyst for our growth towards year-end 2025 – adding considerable production volumes; volumes that will create great value for society, ripple effects and jobs for years to come.”

Thanks to the proven volumes estimated at between 450 and 650 million barrels of oil, the Johan Castberg field is expected to make room for an important infrastructure in a new oil province in the Barents Sea, with two more discoveries, made in 2022, being considered for tie-back to the FPSO.

In addition, Equinor has already confirmed plans for further exploration in the vicinity during the years ahead. The operation of Johan Castberg will be serviced by a supply and helicopter base in Hammerfest and an operations organization in Harstad. 

“The Johan Castberg field development helps strengthen Norway’s role as a reliable and long-term energy supplier. The field will create great value for society, ripple effects and jobs for 30 years to come, and 82% of the field’s revenues will go to the Norwegian state,” highlighted Equinor.

FPSO Johan Castberg embark on a 1,000-mile journey to reach an oil field in the Barents Sea

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The FPSO Johan Castberg’s move toward its final destination in the Barents Sea comes over a month after Equinor kicked off production from the first well in its planned five-well project on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS), being developed as a tie-back to an existing offshore platform in the Norwegian Sea.

As it is believed that the boost in exploration and production activities in deepwater and ultra-deepwater offshore fields will drive the floating production storage and offloading market as global energy demand continues to rise, particularly in emerging economies, Allied Market Research’s recent report on the FPSO market indicates it is set to reach $46.2 billion by 2033.

Since the FPSO market was valued at $25.2 billion in 2023, the forecast estimates that it will grow at a CAGR of 6.3% from 2024 to 2033.