Eni Norge has received consent to carry out exploration drilling of well 7016/2-1 in production licence 529 in the Barents Sea using the Scarabeo 8 semi-submersible drilling rig.
Water depth at the site is approximately 1368 metres. The planned start-up is July 2013 with a duration of 67 days, depending on whether a discovery is made.
Scarabeo 8 is a semi-submersible drilling rig of Moss CS 50 MkII design. It was built at the Fincantieri Shipyard in Palermo, Italy and completed at the Westcon Yard in Ølensvåg in Hordaland county in 2011.
The rig has been winterised, in other words equipped for operations in Arctic waters. It is designed to be capable of working at water depths of between 70 and 3050 metres.
Tilting incident
Also worth mentioning, the Scarabeo 8 was involved in a tilting incident in September last year.
On 4 September, the Scarabeo 8 semi-submersible drilling facility experienced , what the PSA Norway describes as an “unintentional heeling” in connection with exploration drilling for Eni Norge on well 7220/10 in the Barents Sea.
The heeling reached approximately 7 degrees over the course of the incident. The incident is considered serious, but had no serious consequences as regards harm to people, the environment and assets.