Wellesley Petroleum has received consent from the Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA) for exploration drilling in the North Sea offshore Norway using the Transocean Arctic drilling rig.
The consent applies for the drilling of the exploration well 25/1-13 located in production license 871 where Wellesley is the operator.
The area where the well is to be drilled is in the central North Sea, 42 kilometers north of the facilities on the Jotun field and 153 kilometers from land (Gisøy in Bømlo municipality in Hordaland county). Water depth at the site is 109 meters. Wellesley named the 25/1-13 well “Balcom”.
According to the PSA’s statement on Monday, the drilling operations are scheduled to begin on January 22, 2019. The drilling will last 30 days if the well is dry and up to 52 days if hydrocarbons are discovered.
The well will be drilled by the Transocean Arctic drilling rig, which is a semi-submersible unit of the Marosso 56 type, built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in Japan in 1987. It is classified by DNV GL and registered in the Marshall Islands.
The rig is operated by Transocean and received Acknowledgement of Compliance (AoC) from the PSA in July 2004.