EQNR - Equinor postpones investment decision for Barents Sea's Wisting oilfield

Equinor ( NYSE: EQNR ) said Thursday that along with its partners they will delay a final investment decision by as much as four years to develop the Wisting deepwater oilfield in the Barents Sea offshore Norway, citing spiraling costs and capacity challenges among its suppliers.

Equinor ( EQNR ) had planned its FID for the Wisting project for next month, but it said global inflation, capacity challenges and bottlenecks among suppliers and equipment suppliers have increased, had raised expected spending on the field to NOK104B, or ~$10B, from an estimate of NOK60B-NOK75B earlier this year, and instead will aim for a decision by year-end 2026.

"In the current supplier market, postponing the investment decision to ensure an economically sound development and robustness in the execution phase of the project is the right decision," according to Geir Tungesvik, Equinor's ( EQNR ) EVP of Projects, Drilling and Procurement.

Equinor ( EQNR ) is operator of the Wisting project, which is estimated to hold ~500M boe, with a 35%, while partner Aker BP also holds 35%.

Equinor ( EQNR ) is "a low-beta company that is better governed than most national oil companies," Laura Starks writes in an analysis published recently on Seeking Alpha .

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