Statoil Gets Green Light for Drilling in Norwegian Sea Using Transocean Leader Rig

Statoil Petroleum AS (Statoil) has received consent to conduct exploration drilling in the Norwegian Sea with the mobile facility Transocean Leader.

The consent relates to drilling of well 6407/4-2, in production licence 429 in the Norwegian Sea. The prospect being explored has been given the name “Spinell Sør”.

The well has the coordinates N 64° 35′ 36.8″, E 07° 10′ 35.6″. The water depth at the site is 221 metres.

Well 6407/4-2 is located 146 kilometres from Stokkøya in Sør-Trøndelag and the shortest distance to land is approximately 115 kilometres to Frøya.

The plan is to start drilling as soon as Transocean Leader has completed drilling well 15/6-12 for Statoil. The earliest start-up is at the beginning of February 2011.

The planned operation has an estimated duration of 61 days.

The licensees in production licence 429 are Statoil (operator, 70 per cent ownership interest) and Dong (30 per cent).

Transocean Leader (above) is an Aker H-4.2 semi-submersible drilling facility built in 1987 at Hyundai Heavy Industries in Korea. The facility is owned and operated by Transocean Offshore Ltd, with the Marshall Islands as flag state and DNV as classification company.

Transocean Leader received an Acknowledgement of Compliance (AoC) on 16 December 2004.

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Source:Ptil, February  7, 2011;