Johan Sverdrup: Lessons-Learned from the Field-Development of a North Sea Giant

Abstract

In the same year that the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS) celebrates 50-years since the Ekofisk discovery in 1969, which in earnest established Norway as an oil and gas nation, the start-up of the Johan Sverdrup development will extend profitable oil and gas production with lower carbon emissions from the NCS for another five decades. The third largest oil field on the NCS, after the Ekofisk and Statfjord fields, and with recoverable reserves estimated at 2.7 billion barrels of oil equivalent, Johan Sverdrup certainly has the resources to be a North Sea giant. However, being a giant is more than having the necessary resources in place, it is also about turning these resources into recoverable reserves that can be produced in a safe, profitable and – increasingly in today's context – carbon efficient way. This paper provides a high-level summary of the experiences and lessons-learned from the development of the Johan Sverdrup field, and has the objective of serving as an introduction to the technical session papers that follow. As such, the paper aims to highlight what it took to make Johan Sverdrup a true North Sea giant, fit for the 21st century: a safe and successful execution of a mega-project, with next-generation facilities adapted to a more digital way of working, with an ambition to profitably recover more than 70% of the resources, while limiting carbon emissions from production to a minimum. The Johan Sverdrup development has set a new standard for project execution in Equinor, the paper concludes with lessons-learned of relevance for both Equinor's future project portfolio and projects globally.