OMV gains drilling permit for Norwegian Sea well

OMV Norge has received a drilling permit for a wildcat well in the Norwegian Sea from the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD).

The exploration well 6506/11-10 is located in a prospect named Hades & Iris, where OMV Norge is the operator. The well will be drilled about 21 kilometers north of the Kristin field.

The company, a subsidiary of Austria’s OMV, has previously received consent from the Norwegian safety body, the Petroleum Safety Authority, to drill the well using the Deepsea Bergen drilling rig.

Drilling operations are scheduled to begin on or after December 1, 2017, with a duration of around 142 days, depending on whether a discovery is made.

NPD said on Friday that the drilling program for the well was for a wildcat well in production license 644 B. The area in this licence consists of part of block 6506/11.

OMV is the operator of the license with an ownership interest of 30 percent. The other licensees are Statoil with 30 percent as well as Faroe Petroleum and Centrica with 20 percent each.

Production license 644 was awarded on February 5, 2016, in APA 2015. This is the first well to be drilled in the license.

According to the NPD, the rig is currently located in the Averøy Industripark industrial area which was chosen by the rig owner in September as the place to store the Deepsea Bergen ahead of the assignment with OMV.