Equinor will transport the unfinished hull and turret for the Johan Castberg floating production, storage and offloading vessel from Singapore to Norway, as the flagship Barents Sea offshore development continues to be dogged by delays and rising costs.

The hull and turret for the Johan Castberg FPSO were being built at Sembcorp Marine, but the Singapore shipyard, which relies heavily on foreign workers, has been hit by serious manpower shortages due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The problems that have arisen on the project have also led to concerns about welding quality being expressed in a