Norway's Equinor will raise crude production from its flagship Johan Sverdrup field to 500,000 b/d by year-end from 470,000 b/d, with the second phase of the project eventually taking production to 720,000 b/d, after recent testing of the facilities, the company said Nov. 18.
In a statement, the state-controlled company also said first-phase production could rise above 500,000 b/d by mid-2021, thanks to increased water injection ahead of the startup of the second phase of the project in the fourth quarter 2022, which is now set to lift output to 720,000 b/d.
Discovered in 2010 by Sweden's Lundin, Johan Sverdrup is estimated to hold 2.2-3.2 billion barrels of oil equivalent in reserves. The field came on stream in October 2019 and currently accounts for around a quarter of Norway's oil production.
"Equinor and its partners have tested the plant capacity in November to verify a possible production rise. As the test results have been very positive, a production increase is called for by the end of 2020," Equinor said in the statement. "By then the production capacity will rise from today's 470,000 to around 500,000 b/d ... The Johan Sverdrup field has had safe and stable operation since it came on stream just over a year ago."
The company's vice president for Johan Svedrup operations, Rune Nedregaard, added: "Based on the positive results of the capacity test where we produced at rates of over 500,000 b/d... we are now working on solutions to increase the water injection capacity which should allow us to further increase daily production capacity beyond this level by mid-2021."
Johan Sverdrup crude is relatively heavy by North Sea standards and has fared better than other regional grades in finding buyers in Asia during Europe's demand collapse. The grade notably continues to attract strong demand from independent refiners in China's Shandong province.
The original target for phase one production was 440,000 b/d, subsequently raised to 470,000 b/d.
The company again stressed the field's low cost of production and relatively low CO2 emissions, linked to the fact the facilities receive power from the shore-based electricity grid, itself based on hydropower.
The full project is intended to break even at $20/b oil prices, with operating costs at the anticipated plateau production rate of less than $2/b.
"As Johan Sverdrup is a field with high profitability and low CO2 emissions, a production rise is great news. The field has low operating costs, providing revenue for the companies and Norwegian society, even in periods with low prices," Equinor's senior vice president for southern Norwegian upstream operations, Jez Averty, said.
