Statoil cleared to use Songa rig for Troll drilling

Oil major Statoil has received consent from the Norwegian safety body, the Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA), to use the Songa Endurance drilling rig for work on the Troll field in the North Sea.

The PSA said on Monday that the consent allows Statoil to perform drilling and completion work on the Troll field using the Songa Endurance rig.

According to the PSA, drilling is scheduled to begin in mid-October 2017 and last for around 84 days.

The Songa Endurance is a semi-submersible Cat D drilling rig, which received the Acknowledgement of Compliance (AoC) from the PSA on December 17, 2015.

As for the field, the Troll field is around 65 kilometers west of Kollsnes in Hordaland county. It has been developed using three integrated process and accommodation platforms, Troll A, B, and C, and subsea well templates tied back to the B and C platforms.

The Troll field contains around 40 percent of the total gas reserves on the Norwegian Continental Shelf but is also among the largest oil fields on the shelf.