Wintershall gets go-ahead for North Sea wildcat

The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) has granted Wintershall Norge a drilling permit for a wildcat well in the North Sea offshore Norway.

NPD said on Monday that the 35/11-20 B well will be drilled from the Borgland Dolphin semi-submersible drilling rig following the completion of drilling of wildcat well 35/11-20 A for Wintershall Norge in production license 248 F.

The drilling program for well 35/11-20 B relates to the drilling of a wildcat well in production license 248 F.

Wintershall Norge is the operator with an ownership interest of 40 percent. The other licensees are Origo Exploration Norway (20 percent) and Petoro (40 percent). The area in this license consists of a part of block 35/11. The well will be drilled about 100 kilometers southwest of Florø and 20 kilometers northwest of the Fram field.

Production license 248 F was carved out of production license 248 on December 10, 2015. License 248 was awarded on June 4, 1999, in the North Sea Awards. This is the third well to be drilled within the license.

The Borgland Dolphin rig is an Aker H-3 type semi-submersible drilling rig owned by Fred. Olsen Energy and operated by Dolphin Drilling. It was built in 1977 and upgraded in 1999.