Equinor’s Barents Sea oil find provides long-awaited boost for Johan Castberg project
Norway’s state-controlled Equinor has made an oil discovery estimated at 31 million-50 million barrels near its flagship Johan Castberg complex in the Barents Sea, in a potential boost for the industry’s expansion goals in the Arctic region, it said March 10.
In a statement, Equinor said the well, some 230 km northwest of the far northern town of Hammerfest, had struck a 109-meter oil section in the early Jurassic age Sto and Nordmela formations, without encountering an expected gas cap.
The announcement, cautiously worded in Equinor’s statement, could represent progress in its long search for additional resources in the vicinity of Johan Castberg, a cluster of fields discovered early in the last decade and estimated at 400 million-650 million barrels.