Equinor gains consent to use Sverdrup drilling platform

Norway’s safety watchdog, the Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA), has given Equinor consent to use the drilling platform on the Johan Sverdrup field in the North Sea off Norway. 

The drilling platform (DP) was the second of four facilities to be installed on the Johan Sverdrup field in the first phase of the field development (phase 1). Allseas’ Pioneering Spirit vessel installed the 22,000 t drilling platform topsides for Equinor’s Johan Sverdrup in June 2018.

The safety agency said that the consent applies to the use of the DP for completion of pre-drilled production wells and the drilling of top-hole sections on the field.

The various facilities and installations for phase 1 will be prepared and commissioned for use in the upcoming period until production start-up, which is scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2019.

Johan Sverdrup is one of the five largest oil fields on the Norwegian continental shelf. With expected resources of between 2.1—3.1 billion barrels of oil equivalents, it will also be one of the most important industrial projects in Norway in the next 50 years.

In related news, Equinor recently hired Aquaterra Energy to deliver early well construction operations for the next sixteen wells of the Johan Sverdrup field development. Aquaterra will undertake the work from Norwich and Stavanger and is set to deliver the project in 1Q 2019.