Equinor delays start of Arctic Castberg Oilfield until early 2025

Equinor, a Norwegian oil company, announced on Tuesday that it had postponed the start-up of its Arctic Johan Castberg field to January or Febraury 2024 from the end due to bad weather conditions in Barents Sea.

Oilfields in the Norwegian Barents Sea sector are expected to continue producing for 30 years. They will also serve as hubs to connect nearby discoveries.

Equinor announced that so far 14 wells had been drilled in the field. Twelve of them are now ready to be produced, which will allow the company to reach its plateau production capacity of 220,000 barrels a day.

Equinor owns 50% of the Castberg oil field, along with Eni Vaar Energi, Norway's Petoro and Norway's Vaar Energi, who own 30% and 20 %, respectively.

Vaar said separately that the company's production in 2024, based on the revised plan, will be lower than the range it had set for itself of between 280,00 and 290,000.

The delayed start-up did not affect Vaar's target production for 2025, which is around 400,000 boepd.

According to Equinor, the estimated recoverable volume at Johan Castberg is between 450 and 650 millions barrels of crude oil. (Reporting and editing by Terje Solsvik, Louise Breusch Rasmussen)

(source: Reuters)