Three oil & gas firms gearing up for Norwegian wells in February

Three oil and gas companies have been granted drilling permits by Norwegian authorities for wells located in the Norwegian Sea and the North Sea offshore Norway.

Equinor, Aker BP, and Shell were all granted drilling permits by the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate on Monday. All three wells are scheduled to be drilled in February 2022.

Equinor received the permit for a wildcat well 34/4-17 S, which will be drilled using the Odfjell Drilling-owned Deepsea Stavanger rig for an estimated duration of 44 days. The company has already secured safety consent from the Petroleum Safety Authority to drill the well using this rig.

The prospect, Statfjord Kile, is located in production licence 057 in the North Sea, which was originally awarded in 1979 and has been extended until the end of 2040. Equinor is the operator of the licence with an ownership interest of 31 per cent, while other licensees are Idemitsu Petroleum Norge (9.6 per cent), Var Energi (4.9 per cent), Wintershall Dea Norge (24.5 per cent), and Petoro (30 per cent).

Aker BP’s wildcat well, 35/4-3, is also located in the North Sea and it will be drilled using the Odfjell Drilling-owned Deepsea Nordkapp semi-submersible rig. The safety consent was secured earlier this month.

The well is located in production licence 685, which is operated by Aker BP with a 40 per cent interest. Its partners in the licence are Wellesley Petroleum and Petoro with 40 per cent and 20 per cent interests, respectively.

The well is targeting a prospect named Laushornet and drilling operations will be conducted in water depths of 399 meters.

Finally, Shell’s drilling permit relates to well 6305/5-C-3 H, located in production licence 209 in the Norwegian Sea. Shell holds an ownership interest of 15 per cent in the licence, while other licensees are Equinor (40 per cent), Petoro (35 per cent), and Var Energi (10 per cent).

The well will be drilled using the Transocean-owned Transocean Barents semi-sub rig for which Shell secured the safety consent last week.