Green light for Faroe’s North Sea wildcat

The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) has granted Faroe Petroleum a drilling permit for an exploratory well in the North Sea offshore Norway.

NPD said on Thursday that the well 31/07-01 would be drilled from the Transocean Arctic semi-submersible drilling rig in production license 740.

The production license relates to the Brasse prospect located 16 kilometers south-east of Oseberg A and around 93 kilometers west of Sotra in Hordaland.

According to the agency, the drilling programme for well 31/7-1 concerns drilling of a wildcat well with Faroe Petroleum Norge as the operator with 50 percent ownership interest, while Core Energy is the licensee with 50 percent interest.

The area in this licence is part of blocks 31/7 and 30/9. Production licence 740 was awarded in APA 2013, on February 7, 2014. This is the first well to be drilled in the licence.

This announcement comes on the heels of Norway’s Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA) consent for exploration drilling in the Brasse prospect with the Transocean Arctic harsh environment midwater semi-submersible drilling rig earlier this month.