Located in the Hoop area of the Barents Sea, the Wisting license is estimated to have 440 million barrels of oil equivalent
Equinor is the operator of the Wisting license. (Credit: Equinor ASA)
Norwegian firm Equinor, on behalf of the Wisting oilfield licence partners, has awarded concept studies contracts for the development of the Wisting discovery in the Barents Sea offshore Norway.
Located in the Hoop area of the Barents Sea, around 310km from the Norwegian mainland, the Wisting license is estimated to have 440 million barrels of oil equivalent.
Equinor project development acting senior vice-president Trond Bokn said that the Wisting is a considerable oil field in the Barents Sea.
“Founded on experience and synergy potential within the project-portfolio we have assessed different development alternatives to identify potential solutions for a cost-effective and optimal field development.
“Based on this work, the licence partners have decided to further assess a floating production unit based on a circular FPSO solution (floating production, storage and offloading). However, a lot of work remains before we can make a final concept select during second quarter of 2021.”
FPSO concept study awarded to Aker, KBR, Sevan SSP and Aibel
For the floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) concept study, Equinor has awarded the contracts to Aker Solutions, KBR, Sevan SSP and Aibel.
Aker Solutions, TechnipFMC, OneSubsea Processing, IKM Ocean Design, and Kongsberg Maritime have been selected for subsea production and processing equipment, umbilical, risers and flowlines (SURF) study for the Wisting discovery.
Last year, Equinor has assumed the operatorship of the Wisting licence from Austrian firm OMV. This follows the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between the firms in June 2019 for collaboration on the Wisting development.
Under the MoU, Equinor agreed to assume the role of the operator of Wisting in the development phase, while OMV will assume the role as the operator in the operating phase.
Bokn said: “Electrification is considered a possible option for reducing field emissions. The project will study a power-from-shore solution for a circular FPSO going forward.”
Equinor operates the Wisting licence with 35% stake while other partners include OMV (Norge) (25%), Petoro (20%) and Idemitsu Petroleum Norge (20%).
The final investment decision for the Wisting project is scheduled at the end of 2022.