Norway’s Statoil has awarded Aker Solutions a NOK250 million contract to carry out an extended concept study for a floating production system for the Johan Castberg oilfield development in the Barents Sea.
The Johan Castberg field, in PL 532, is about 240km north-west of Hammerfest. The field consists of the Skrugard discovery from 2011 and Havis, which was discovered in 2012. Preliminary volume estimates are in the range of 400-600MM bo.
A spokesman for Statoil said the contract with Aker was part of work to look at new concepts for the development.
In June this year, Statoil announced a delay to the investment decision on the project, due to “uncertainties related to the resource estimate and investment level”. It was also responding to a proposed increase in Norway’s petroleum tax system, which would reduce the attractiveness of future projects, particularly for marginal fields and fields which require new infrastructure, said Statoil, at the time.
Statoil has started a four-well exploration program in the area around Johan Castberg to prove additional resource, in order to add “further robustness” to the development.
The license partners had already selected a development concept for the project, including a new oil terminal at Veidnes outside Honningsvåg in Finnmark county, Norway.
Aker Solutions had also conducted earlier concept studies for the project.
Statoil is the operator of production license PL532 with 50% equity. The other partners are Eni Norge AS (30%) and Petoro (20%).
Image: The original Johan Castberg/Skrugard concept.
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