Equinor granted drilling permit for North Sea well trio

The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) has granted Equinor a drilling permit for three wells in the North Sea offshore Norway.

NPD said on Wednesday that the drilling program was for two wildcat wells and one appraisal well, designated 35/10-4 S, 35/10-4 A, and 35/10-4 B.

The three well locations are located in production license 630 where Equinor is the operator with an ownership interest of 60 percent while licensee Wellesley Petroleum has an ownership interest of 40 percent.

The area in this license consists of a part of block 35/1 and a part of block 35/10. The wells will be drilled from the Deepsea Bergen drilling rig some seven kilometers southwest of the Vega Sør field.

Production license 630 was awarded on February 3, 2012, in APA 2011 on the Norwegian shelf. Well 35/10-4 S will be the first well to be drilled in the license.

To remind, Equinor received consent from the Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA) to drill the 35/10-4 S well using the Deepsea Bergen rig in late June.

As for the rig, the Deepsea Bergen is a semi-submersible drilling rig of the Aker H-3.2 type built at Aker Verdal in 1983. The rig is owned and operated by Odfjell Drilling and classified by DNV GL and registered in Norway.