Lundin Petroleum Announces First Oil From Johan Sverdrup Field

Lundin Petroleum) announced Saturday first oil from Phase 1 of the Johan Sverdrup field on the Utsira High in the Norwegian North Sea, ahead of schedule and below budget.

The field commenced production on October 5, 2019 and is expected to ramp up quickly as the eight pre-drilled production wells are progressively commissioned.

Phase 1 plateau production is expected to be achieved by summer 2020 and will require two to four new wells to be drilled, with the first of these expected to come on stream around the end of 2019, the comapny said.

Phase 1 of the project has been developed as a field centre of four platforms – drilling, processing, living quarters and riser platform. The field has gross recoverable reserves of 2.7 billion barrels of oil equivalent and during Phase 1, Johan Sverdrup will produce 440,000 barrels of oil per day, increasing to 660,000 barrels of oil per day, after Phase 2 of the development commences production in the fourth quarter 2022. 

At its peak, the field will produce approximately 25 percent of all petroleum production on the Norwegian Continental Shelf.

The company said that Johan Sverdrup Phase 1 has been delivered below the original budget, saving to date approximately NOK 40 billion gross at project exchange rates. The field is being operated with power supplied from shore and will be one of the lowest CO₂ emitting fields in the world, with CO₂ emissions of below 1 kg per barrel, about 25 times less than the world average. Post Phase 1 plateau, operating costs will be below USD 2 per barrel and the full-field break-even oil price, including past investments, is less than USD 20 per barrel.

Equinor AS, is the operator of Johan Sverdrup with a 42.6 percent working interest. The partners are Lundin Norway AS with 20 percent, Petoro AS with 17.36 percent, AkerBP ASA with 11.5733 percent and Total S.A. with 8.44 percent.

Alex Schneiter, President and CEO of Lundin Petroleum said, “I am very pleased to announce first oil from Johan Sverdrup, which is truly a transformational moment for Lundin Petroleum. Since we made the discovery in 2010, this field has exceeded all expectations in terms of project execution, resources growth and cost reduction and it is a testament to the hard work from all stakeholders and regulatory authorities, to get the field up and running ahead of schedule and below budget. This is one of the largest industrial projects in Europe, and I would like to thank the operator Equinor, who have done a fantastic job in managing the development of this world class field.”