The North Sea Johan Sverdrup field expects to reach plateau production for the first phase in early May, earlier than anticipated. Due to higher plant capacity, plateau production will increase from around 440,000 barrels of oil per day to around 470,000 barrels per day.

The Johan Sverdrup field in the North Sea. (Photo: Arne Reidar Mortensen)

Plateau production was previously expected to be reached during the summer. At the end of March, daily production had already exceeded 430,000 barrels of oil.

“Johan Sverdrup is an important project to the companies, the industry and society at large. The project was sanctioned during the oil price fall in 2015 and resulted in important activity to the supplier industry in a demanding period. With low operating costs Johan Sverdrup provides revenue and cashflow to the companies and Norwegian society at large in a period affected by the coronavirus and a major drop in the oil price. In today’s situation, cooperation between operators, suppliers and authorities is more important than ever to maintain activity and value creation,” says Arne Sigve Nylund, Equinor’s executive vice president for Development and Production Norway.

“Field production has been very good and stable from day one, and the wells have produced even better than expected,” says Rune Nedregaard, vice president for Johan Sverdrup operations. “We are currently completing the tenth well. This work is progressing smoothly, helping reach higher production earlier than expected. We also expect to increase plant capacity, allowing plateau production to increase from the previously expected 440,000 barrels to around 470,000 barrels of oil per day.”

The Johan Sverdrup field came on stream on 5 October last year, more than two months ahead of the original schedule and NOK 40 billion below the original estimate for development and operation (PDO August 2015).

The break-even price for the full-field development is below USD 20 per barrel, and expected operating costs are below USD 2 per barrel.

“Johan Sverdrup has very low production costs, contributing with a strong cashflow also in periods with low prices, as we experience” says Nedregaard.

At plateau in phase 2 the field will produce 690,000 barrels of oil per day. Expected recoverable reserves in the field are 2.7 billion barrels of oil equivalent. Our ambition for the field is to achieve a recovery factor of more than 70 per cent.

“We are working systematically with our partners to increase value creation from the field and ensure an optimal recovery factor,” says Nedregaard.

PARTNERS: Equinor: 42.6% (operator), Lundin Norway: 20%, Petoro: 17.36%, Aker BP: 11.5733% and Total: 8.44%.

Link to Equinor Norway country profile