Aker BP all set to get Norwegian Sea drilling ops underway

Norwegian oil and gas company Aker BP has received a drilling permit from Norwegian authorities for a wildcat well located in the Norwegian Sea. The drilling activities will be carried out by an Odfjell Drilling-owned rig.

The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate confirmed on Tuesday that the well 6507/2-6 would be drilled using the Odfjell Drilling’s Deepsea Nordkapp – former Stena Midmax – semi-submersible drilling rig, which Odfjell Drilling bought from Samsung Heavy in April 2018.

Earlier this month, after concluding the drilling of the well 35/4-3, located in production licence 685, Aker BP announced that the new well on the Deepsea Nordkapp rig’s list was the wildcat well 6507/2-6.

The drilling programme for this well entails the drilling of an exploration well in production licence 261, which was awarded in May 2000 and is valid until 12 May 2036.

Aker BP is the operator of the licence with an ownership interest of 70 per cent and the other licensee is Wintershall Dea Norge with the remaining 30 per cent.

The drilling operations are planned to start this month, using the Deepsea Nordkapp rig, which received an Acknowledgement of Compliance (AoC) from the PSA in May 2019.

The original contract for this rig – under the terms of the drilling agreement that Odfjell Drilling and Aker BP entered into in April 2018 – was for a period of two years and contained two annual extension options. The first of these extension options was exercised in December 2019 while the second one was exercised in March 2021.

It is worth noting that Aker BP also recently obtained another drilling permit for two exploration wells – 6507/3-15 and 6507/3-16 – located in the Norwegian Sea, which are expected to be drilled by this rig next month.