Norway officially opens Johan Castberg mine today

Norwegian Energy Minister Terje Aasland today officially opened the Johan Castberg field (Equinor 46.3%, Vaar Energi 30%, and Petoro 23.7%), the second largest oil field in the Barents Sea and the northernmost in Norway, which includes Skrugard, Havis and Draivis, discovered between 2011 and 2014.

The field will be developed using a floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) unit connected to a subsea field with 30 wells located on 10 subsea platforms and two support structures. Drilling operations are expected to continue until 2026.

The Johan Castberg field was initially estimated to hold between 450 million and 650 million barrels of oil. Equinor previously said production at the field, which came on stream on March 31, had peaked at 220,000 b/d.