Equinor said that the first phase of the Johan Sverdrup project in the North Sea is expected to hit plateau production in early May, which is much earlier than previously anticipated by the company and its partners.

The Norwegian oil and gas giant said that by the end of March, the daily oil production at the Johan Sverdrup field had already surpassed 430,000 barrels.

Owing to higher plant capacity, plateau production will move up to 470,000 barrels per day (bpd) from the previously estimated output of about 440,000bpd.

Arne Sigve Nylund – Equinor executive vice president for Development and Production Norway said: “Johan Sverdrup is an important project to the companies, the industry and society at large. The project was sanctioned during the oil price fall in 2015 and resulted in important activity to the supplier industry in a demanding period.

“With low operating costs Johan Sverdrup provides revenue and cash flow to the companies and Norwegian society at large in a period affected by the coronavirus and a major drop in the oil price. In today’s situation, cooperation between operators, suppliers and authorities is more important than ever to maintain activity and value creation.”

The Johan Sverdrup field was brought into production in October 2019, more than a couple of months earlier than the original schedule and the development and operation cost was NOK 40 billion ($3.88 billion) less than the original estimate.

The break-even price for the full-field development is now under $20 per barrel, and expected operating costs are less than $2 per barrel, said Equinor.

At plateau in phase 2, which is expected to enter into production in Q4 2022, the Johan Sverdrup field is expected to yield 690,000 barrels of oil per day. The total recoverable resources of the offshore Norwegian field are estimated to be 2.7 billion barrels of oil equivalent.

Rune Nedregaard- vice president for Johan Sverdrup operations said: “Field production has been very good and stable from day one, and the wells have produced even better than expected.”

“We are currently completing the tenth well. This work is progressing smoothly, helping reach higher production earlier than expected. We also expect to increase plant capacity, allowing plateau production to increase from the previously expected 440,000 barrels to around 470,000 barrels of oil per day.”

Equinor as the operator of the Johan Sverdrup field with a stake of 42.6% with its partners being Lundin Norway (20%), Petoro (17.36%), Aker BP (11.57%) and Total (8.44%).

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