Norway: Statoil Gets Drilling Permit for Barents Sea Wildcat

The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate has granted a drilling permit to Statoil Petroleum AS for wellbore 7220/7-1, cf. Section 8 of the Resource Management Regulations.

Wellbore 7220/7-1 will be drilled from the drilling facility Aker Barents.

The drilling program for wellbore 7220/7-1 applies to the drilling of a wildcat well in production licence 532. Statoil Petroleum AS is the operator with a 50% ownership interest. The other licensees are Eni Norway AS with 30% and Petoro AS with 20%.

Well 7220/7-1 is located about 100 kilometres northwest of the Snøhvit field. The production licence consists of the blocks 7219/9, 7220/4, 7220/5, 7220/7 and 7220/8. The production licence was awarded in the 20th licensing round.

Wildcat well 7220/7-1 is the second exploration well in production licence 532.

Aker Barents rig is a 6th generation semi-submersible drilling facility constructed according to the H-6e concept for drilling operations at water depths up to 3000 metres and in Arctic regions.

The facility was delivered as a new construction during the summer of 2009, built by Aker Solutions at the Stord yard in Norway.

The facility is owned and operated by Aker Drilling, with main offices in Stavanger.

The drilling permit is granted on the condition that all other permits and consents required by other authorities have been secured before the drilling activity commences.

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Offshore Energy Today Staff, December 6, 2011; Image: Aker Drilling