Statoil is to move ahead with its delayed Johan Castberg oil field in the Barents Sea after cutting estimated development costs by half.
The firm is now planning a floating production, storage and offloading vessel for the development, with shuttle tanker offloading, rather than a pipeline to shore, reports Bloomberg. It would be the second floating production unit in the Barents Sea, following Eni's Goliat cylindrical Sevan-design FPSO, which was moored on site last year and had been due on stream by the end of 2015.
The Norwegian oil major’s CEO Eldar Saetre outlined the latest plans for Johan Castberg at yesterday’s Oljeindustripolitisk seminar (Oil Industry Policy Seminar) in Sandefjord, Norway.
He said Statoil plans to invest NOK50-60 billion (~US$6 billion) in Johan Castberg, compared with earlier estimates of about NOK100 billion ($11.3 billion), with production possibly starting in 2022 after a final decision in 2017, reported Bloomberg.
Developing Johan Castberg would mean infrastructure is created which could then be used to develop other nearby fields, such as Lundin Petroleum’s Gohta and Alta finds.
Johan Castberg has already been set back three times, most recently in March 2015, when Statoil said it aimed to shed a further 15% on the capital cost for the development before moving forward.
The up to 600 MMboe project was previously delayed due to disappointing exploration results in the area, as well as the high CAPEX costs.
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