Equinor postpones start of Arctic Castberg oilfield to early 2025

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) -Norway's Equinor said on Tuesday that the startup of its Arctic Johan Castberg oilfield has been postponed to January or February from the end of 2024 due to adverse weather conditions in the Barents Sea.

The oilfield in the Norwegian sector of the Barents Sea is expected to produce for some 30 years, and will serve as a hub to tie in nearby discoveries in the future.

So far, 14 wells have been drilled on the field, and 12 are ready for production, which is sufficient to meet the plateau capacity of 220,000 barrels per day (bpd), Equinor said in a statement.

Equinor operates the Castberg field and owns 50%, together with Eni's Vaar Energi and Norway's Petoro, which own 30% and 20%, respectively.

Vaar separately said that due to the revised plan the company's full year production for 2024 will be at the lower end of its guided range of between 280,000 to 290,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd).

Vaar's production target for the end of 2025 of around 400,000 boepd was not affected by the delayed start-up, it added.

Estimated recoverable volumes at Johan Castberg are between 450 million and 650 million barrels of oil, according to Equinor.

(Reporting by Louise Breusch Rasmussen, editing by Terje Solsvik)