The Johan Castberg, a ship set to harvest Norway's newest oil field of the same name at the bottom of the Barents Sea, is undergoing final checks before setting sail.
The ship is currently docked at the coastal village of Stord, and was visited Tuesday (May 7) by Equinor CEO Anders Opedal, in a ceremony before she is set to depart. Norwegian Finance Minister Trygve Slagsvold Vedum also attended the event on behalf of Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store.
Bloomberg reported that the Norwegian government is trying to maintain its position as one of Europe's vital energy suppliers as an alternative to Russia since its war against Ukraine in 2022. Currently, 30% of Europe's natural gas comes from Norway, which has also developed ways to reduce emissions in its energy industry, including powering offshore platforms with renewable energy from wind turbines.
However, critics of Norway's oil exploration program stressed that it would damage the country's climate responsibilities. Activists previously filed a lawsuit in 2020 accusing the government of allegedly breaching fundamental human rights, which has since been dismissed.
Norway's Finance Minister: Barents Oil Field of 'Enormous Value' for Norway
The Johan Castberg is a 313-meter oil production tanker, about the same length as the USS Gerald R. Ford, the world's largest aircraft carrier as of writing. Her tanks could hold up to 1.1 million barrels of oil.
The ship is scheduled to spend the summer at the dock and anchored at a fjord near Stord before sailing northwards to the Barents oil field to begin production by the fourth quarter this year. Once fully operational, she could collect about 220,000 barrels a day.
For Vedum, the ship and the field - both of which were named after an early 20th-century Norwegian politician - are of "enormous value" to the country as it would boost its economy and provide massive amounts of energy reserves.
The Castberg field is located above the Arctic Circle and 240 kilometers northwest of Europe's biggest liquefied natural gas facility at Hammerfest. The area is estimated to hold between 450 million and 650 million barrels of oil.
Three companies have been licensed to operate on the field, with Equinor having the lion's share at 50%, with Vår Energi and state-owned Petoro sharing the rest at 30% and 20%, respectively.
Aside from Castberg, two other Barents fields, Goliat and Snohvit, are present and currently in operation.
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