ByTsvetana Paraskova– Feb 12, 2025, 7:30 AM CST
Aker BP and TotalEnergies, equity partners in Western Europe’s biggest producing oilfield, Johan Sverdrup, have asked for an independent review of their interests that could ultimately give them higher stakes in the Equinor-operated field.
“TotalEnergies used an option to call for a redetermination process,” Karl Johnny Hersvik, chief executive of Aker BP, said on Wednesday, as quoted by Reuters.
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Aker BP supported TotalEnergies’s move to ask for a redetermination of the stakes, Hersvik added.
Per the agreement, the partners in the Johan Sverdrup field can seek redetermination of their stakes on the basis of data about production and reservoirs at the giant oilfield.
Currently, these partners are Equinor Energy AS with 42.6267% and holding the operatorship, Aker BP with a 31.5733% stake, Norwegian state-owned oil firm Petoro AS with a 17.36% interest, and TotalEnergies EP Norge AS with 8.44%.
Commenting on the call for redetermination, Hersvik told reporters,
“I’m not going to speculate on the results of such a process, but obviously we wouldn’t have done that if we didn’t expect a positive change.”
Johan Sverdrup, the biggest producing oil field in Western Europe, began pumping crude in 2019. The peak production level is seen at 755,000 barrels daily, which is significantly higher than initial peak output expectations of 660,000 bpd. The peak output was hit for the first time in September 2024 when Johan Sverdrup produced 756,000 bpd. The field’s output alone accounts for a third of Norway’s total oil production.
Johan Sverdrup is estimated to have reserves of 2.7 billion barrels of oil equivalents, and the entire field is now in production. Phase One of Johan Sverdrup was put online in October 2019, and Phase Two came on stream in December 2022.
Earlier this month, operator Equinor said that it expects production at Johan Sverdrup to continue to be close to 2023 and 2024 levels in 2025. The recovery rate ambition has been increased from 65% in the plan for development and operations to 75% now, including Johan Sverdrup phase 3, Equinor said last week.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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