Aker BP cleared to use Transocean rig for Alvheim wells

Norwegian oil company Aker BP has received consent from the offshore watchdog, the Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA), to use the Transocean Arctic rig to drill two production wells on the Alvheim field, off Norway. 

The two wells are designated 24/6-A-6 and 24/6-A-7 and are to be drilled in Boa, which is one of the four reservoirs comprising the Alvheim field, the safety authority informed on Wednesday.

Transocean Arctic is a semi-submersible drilling rig of the Marosso 56 type, owned by Transocean and built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in Japan in 1987. The rig, upgraded in 2004, is classified by DNV GL and registered in the Marshall Islands.

It was issued with an Acknowledgement of Compliance (AoC) by the PSA in July 2004.

Alvheim is an Aker BP-operated oil and gas field in the North Sea close to the boundary with the UK sector and west of Bømlo in Hordaland county.

The field has been developed using subsea wellhead templates which are tied back to the Alvheim FPSO production vessel.