The Johan Castberg (formerly Skrugard) Field Development project comprises of two oil fields, namely Johan Castberg and Havis, located in production license PL 532, about 100km north of the Snøhvit-field in the Barents Sea.
Johan Castberg and Havis oil fields are located at a distance of about seven kilometres from each other and will be jointly developed as part of the Johan Castberg Field Development project. The partners involved in the development of production licence PL532 are Statoil (50%), ENI (30%) and Petoro (20%).
The two oil fields are located at water depths of about 360m to 390m and are expected to start delivering oil by 2018, with current recoverable reserves estimated at being 400 to 600 million barrels of oil. The production capacity of the fields is estimated at 200,000 barrels of oil equivalent each day. The plan for development and operation (PDO) of the project is expected to be submitted by 2014.
Discovery and drilling of Johan Castberg and Havis
“The partners involved in the development of production licence PL532 are Statoil (50%), ENI (30%) and Petoro (20%).”
Johan Castberg was discovered in April 2011 and Havis in January 2012. The fields are situated in blocks 7219/9 and 7220/4,5,7. The fields were discovered after the 20th licensing round on the Norwegian Continental Shelf was announced in April 2009 by the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy.
Drilling of Johan Castberg was concluded in early 2011 with the completion of drilling the well (7220/8-1) using Transocean’s rig Polar Pioneer, which encountered hydrocarbons at approximately 1,250m depth below sea level.
Drilling of the Havis prospect concluded in early 2012. The last well, 7220/7-1 was drilled using Aker Solution’s rig, Aker Barents. The well was drilled to a depth of 2,200m below sea level and at sea depth of 365m. Estimated volumes from Havis are expected to be between 200 and 300 million barrels of recoverable oil equivalent.
The appraisal of the Skrugard (now known as Johan Castberg) discovery was concluded in March 2012. Appraisal well 7220/5-1 was drilled using the Transocean Barents drilling rig to a depth of 1,740m below sea level, at a water depth of 388m. The appraisal confirmed the estimated initial volume from the Skrugard and Havis facilities in the range of 400 to 600 million barrels of recoverable oil.
Statoil is also drilling exploration wells around the Johan Castberg area to further increase the resources to make the project more robust.
Development of the Norwegian oil fields
The development concept for the two oil fields was announced in February 2013. The plan includes installation of a floating production unit (FPU/FPSO) with a pipeline to shore and an onshore oil terminal at Veidnes, outside Honningsvag, in Finnmark.
“Johan Castberg and Havis oil fields are located at a distance of about seven kilometres from each other.”
The two fields will share common infrastructure. Production from the fields will be tied in to a semi-submersible floating installation through a subsea production system located in about 380m of water.
A total of 14 production wells are expected to be drilled, in addition to injection wells for water and gas for pressure support.
Transportation of the produced oil from offshore to the onshore oil storage facility will be facilitated by a pipeline measuring 280km in length.
The oil will be stored in two mountain caverns. It will be transferred to the quay through a pipeline. Crude tankers will further transport the oil from the terminal.
Contractors for the Johan Castberg Field Development project
Sevan Marine was awarded with a contract in March 2012 to carry out a concept study for application of an FPSO for the development of the field. The company was also involved in the feasibility study that was conducted for the project earlier in 2011. The contract to carry out the preliminary studies for the development of the two oil fields was awarded to Aker Solutions.
