Equinor has made a new oil discovery at Johan Castberg in the Barents Sea. The discovery in the Polynya Tubåen prospect is provisionally estimated at 14-24 million barrels of recoverable oil equivalents and is planned to be connected to the existing development. Equinor announced this in a press release.
The discovery was made with the rig COSL Prospector and is part of the company's work to expand the resource base around Johan Castberg. The field was originally estimated at 500-700 million barrels, and Equinor has an ambition to increase this by a further 200-500 million barrels.
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With Johan Castberg, we opened a new oil province in the Barents Sea a year ago. It is encouraging that we are now making new discoveries in the area. Going forward, we plan to drill one to two exploration wells per year in the region to increase the resource base and maintain plateau production for a longer period, says Grete Birgitte Haaland, Area Director for Exploration and Production North at Equinor.
The discovery follows on from Drivis Tubåen from June 2025, which was estimated at 13-20 million barrels. At the same time, the development of Isflak has started. It will be the first discovery to be connected to Johan Castberg. Aker Solutions is building a well template for two new wells, which will be connected to the existing subsea facilities.
Johan Castberg is located 220 km northwest of Hammerfest in the Barents Sea. The field is owned by Equinor Energy with 46.3 percent, Vår Energi with 30 percent and Petoro with 23.7 percent. Production started on March 31, 2025.
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