Norway’s Equinor has temporarily halted production at the Johan Sverdrup oilfield, the largest in Western Europe, due to an onshore power outage. The company reported the shutdown on Monday.
Impact on Oil Prices:
Following the announcement, oil prices increased, with Brent crude futures rising by $1.88 (2.65%) to $72.92 per barrel, and U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude up by $1.78 (2.66%) to $68.80 per barrel.
Details of the Outage:
The outage was attributed to smoke from an electricity converter station that supplies power to phase 1 of the Johan Sverdrup development. While the situation was quickly assessed, it necessitated a complete production shutdown across the entire field.
The converter station for Sverdrup Phase 2, which powers Sverdrup and other fields in the North Sea’s Utsira High area, remained operational.
Production Expectations:
Equinor had previously indicated that the Sverdrup field is expected to reduce its peak production, currently at around 755,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boed), starting early next year.
Ownership Structure:
Equinor operates the field and holds a 42.63% stake, while Aker BP owns 31.57%, Norwegian state-owned Petoro holds 17.36%, and TotalEnergies has the remaining 8.44%.