The Plan for Development and Operation (PDO) of the Johan Castberg field in the Barents Sea was submitted to the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy on Tuesday, 5 December 2017, during a ceremony in Hammerfest. The plan for development of Johan Castberg calls for a large subsea facility tied in to a floating production vessel.
“Petoro believes that the chosen concept in the PDO for Johan Castberg is a good technical solution which maximises value and facilitates safe and efficient operation,” says Petoro’s Vice president licences, Kjell Morisbak Lund. In addition to Petoro with 20%, the Johan Castberg partnership consists of the operator Statoil (50%) and Eni (30%).
The Johan Castberg field is situated about 100 kilometres north of the Snøhvit field in the Barents Sea. The resource base for the development consists of the three oil discoveries Skrugard from 2011, Havis from 2012 and Drivis from 2014, all of which are located in production licence 532. The plan is for the field to be in production from 2022, and it is estimated to contain 450 - 650 million barrels of oil equivalents, primarily oil. The plan calls for drilling 30 wells on the field between 2019 and 2024.
The Johan Castberg field will be the third field to be developed in the Barents Sea, after Goliat and Snøhvit. The operations organisation will be located in Harstad, while the supply base and helicopter base will be in Hammerfest. Estimates for the Norwegian share of the field are around 50 per cent in the project phase and around 80 per cent in the operations phase.
