In a recent development, Equinor has made gas discovery close to its Johan Castberg oilfield located in the Barents Sea and is going to evaluate a potential tie-in along with the fully operational arctic field.
It is well to be noted that Equinor, along with its partners in the exploration and production license, has gone on to hit natural gas in the Skred prospect in a well drilled 23 km north of the Johan Castberg field. Equinor has made gas discovery which happens to lie 210 km northwest of Hammerfest, which happens to be a major export facility in Norway, as confirmed by the Norwegian offshore directorate on July 10, 2025.
Interestingly, preliminary estimates put the size of the discovery at between 1.9 and 3.1 million barrels of oil, which is equivalent to recoverable gas, said the regulator, further adding that Equinor will now evaluate the discovery with a viewpoint to a possible tie-in along with the Johan Castberg field.
If fast-tracked via a tie-in, additional gas volumes coming from Norway would be welcome in Europe, where the Norwegian shelf happens to be now the single largest gas supplier, replacing Russia after 2022. Equinor has gone on to announce that Johan Castberg has hit full capacity of 220,000 barrels per day of crude oil production, thereby noting that full capacity has been reached in just three months post the Arctic Waters of Norway coming on stream.
Johan Castberg, which happens to be the newest oilfield in Norway, is going to produce crude for 30 years, boost the country’s oil exports, and also throttle the role of western Europe’s biggest oil and gas producer as a dependable in addition to being a long-term energy supplier, said Equinor in a statement.
It is worth noting that in June 2025, Equinor announced that it made an oil discovery near Johan Castberg, which could as well boost the reserves at the giant field. The company looks forward to drilling one or two exploration wells every year near the Johan Castberg site. Notably, Norway anticipates its oil liquids production to grow by 5.2% in 2025 as compared to 2024, all thanks to the startup of Johan Castberg.
However, there would be further exploration efforts as well as new discoveries, which will be critical in order to slow the anticipated decline in the oil and gas production in Norway in the 2030s, the Norwegian authorities have commented.
