A spate of annoucements from Equinor offer a forward look at the company’s investments
Equinor has made a new oil discovery in Snøfonn Nord near the Johan Castberg field in the Barents Sea.
The company said preliminary calculations of the size of the discovery indicate between 37M and 50M barrels of recoverable oil. Together with the other licensees, Vår Energi and Petoro, Equinor said it will consider tying the discovery to the Johan Castberg field.
“Snøfonn Nord is an exciting discovery in the vicinity of the Johan Castberg development and can add valuable volumes to the installation in the future,” Equinor senior vice president for exploration and production north Kristin Westvik said. “In co-operation with the licence partners, we will consider a possible development.”
The Snøfonn Nord discovery was made exactly one year after the Isflak discovery in the same area, but is “probably somewhat bigger” according to the company.
Drilling of the well was carried out by the Transocean Enabler rig and is now complete. Transocean Enabler will move 800 m further west in PL 532 to drill a new exploration well, Equinor said.
Equinor and Halten East partners Vår Energi, Spirit Energy and Petoro have decided to invest about Nkr9Bn (US$941M) in the development of the area neighbouring the Åsgard field in the Norwegian Sea.
The area consists of six gas and condensate discoveries and options on another three prospects, Equinor said. The partnership has filed its plan for development and operation to Norway’s Ministry of Petroleum and Energy.
Equinor said contracts worth a combined value of almost Nkr7Bn will be awarded, including existing contracts and letters of intent (LOI) to Technip FMC and Aker Solutions.
Technip FMC was awarded a contract to install pipelines and subsea structures at a value of Nkr1.3-1.5Bn.
Aker Solutions has won a subsea production system contract with a value of Nkr1.3-1.5Bn and has an LOI for an umbilical valued at Nkr300-400M.
In addition, Equinor said, contracts have been awarded for drilling, drilling services, specialist services and modifications to the Åsgard B platform module at an estimated value of Nkr3.6Bn.
The contracts are subject to government approval of the plan for development and operation.
Halten East is a collective name for several small-size discoveries and prospects. Finding economically viable development alternatives for each individual project was difficult. In 2020, the licensees in the four licences therefore agreed to develop the area as a unit.
Recoverable reserves in Halten East are estimated at around 100M barrels of oil equivalent, 60% of which is gas piped via Kårstø to Europe.
Since Russia’s war in Ukraine, Equinor haspublicly distanced itself from Russian energy and expedited plans to add energy production for European customers.
Equinor said it has now transferred its participating interests in four Russian joint ventures to Rosneft and is released from all future commitments and obligations. An agreement to exit the Kharyaga project has also been signed, according to the company
The exit from all joint ventures has been completed in accordance with Norwegian and EU sanctions legislation related to Russia, Equinor said.
“On 27 February 2022, Equinor decided to start the process of exiting the company’s joint ventures in Russia. Since then, Equinor has halted all new investments into Russia, stopped trading oil and gas products from Russia and announced an impairment of US$1.08Bn on the balance sheet as of 31 March 2022,” a statement from Equinor read.
