ConocoPhillips picks up drilling permit for Norwegian Sea wildcat

The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) has granted ConocoPhillips Skandinavia a drilling permit for a wildcat well located offshore Norway.

The permit is for the well 6507/5-11, which is located in production licence 891 in the Norwegian Sea. The licence was granted in February 2017 and is valid until February 2025.

ConocoPhillips Skandinavia is the operator of the licence with an 80 per cent interest while its partner, Pandion Energy, holds the remaining 20 per cent interest.

Based on information available to the Norwegian Environment Agency, the well is planned to be drilled in the Norwegian Sea approximately 750 metres from the exploration well 6507/5-10 S, which was drilled in 2020.

The well is expected to be drilled next month, using the Transocean Norge semi-submersible rig. Built by Sembcorp Marine at the Jurong Shipyard (JSPL) in Singapore between 2012 and 2016, the rig is owned and operated by Transocean. It received an Acknowledgement of Compliance (AoC) from the PSA in July 2019.

Back in June 2021, Transocean confirmed that the Transocean Norge rig was awarded a four-well contract plus five one-well options in Norway expected to start in March 2022. At the time, no information was revealed about the company which hired the rig.

Transocean’s latest fleet status report shows the contract is with ConocoPhillips, under a day rate of $280,000, It is scheduled to start in March 2022 and end in September 2022.

When it comes to ConocoPhillips’ recent activities elsewhere, the oil major yesterday completed the sale of its oil and gas assets in Indonesia for $1.36 billion.

After reviewing its asset portfolio, the company decided to sell these assets to pursue energy transition opportunities, which would allow it to amass assets with lower GHG intensity, such as LNG.