Marathon Petroleum Norge AS has been granted consent to carry out exploration drilling for well 25/10-11
The well will be drilled in production licence 505 in the North Sea, about 40 km south of the Heimdal field and about 180 km west of Haugesund. The well has the coordinates N 59° 12′ 48.059”, E 02° 07′ 42.295”. The water depth at the site is 329 metres.
The plan is to start drilling at the end of December and to finish in 87 days, but the drilling could last up to 145 days if discoveries are made which lead to additional evaluation and formation testing.
The exploration drilling will be carried out using the semi-submersible drilling facility Transocean Winner (pictured), which is owned by Transocean Offshore and operated by Transocean Offshore (North Sea) Ltd NUF, with headquarters in Stavanger.
The facility was built in 1983 at Götaverken Arendal in Gothenburg and received an Acknowledgement of Compliance (AoC) from the PSA in August 2006.
Marathon is the operator of production licence 505 with a 50 per cent ownership interest. The other participants in the production licence are Lundin Norway AS and Verbundnetz Gas Norge AS with 30 and 20 per cent shares, respectively.
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Source: Ptil, December 23, 2010;