Statoil ASA has been granted consent to carry out exploration drilling of well 30/11-8S in the North Sea.
The exploration drilling will take place in a prospect covered by the production licenses 272 and 035. The well has the coordinates N 60° 13′ 03.03”, E 02° 29′ 22.20” and is located 158 km west of Bergen. The water depth at the site is 106 metres.
The drilling is scheduled to start in mid-January and last 56 days, with an additional 29 days if a decision is made to drill a sidetrack well.
The exploration drilling will be carried out with the semi-submersible drilling facility Ocean Vanguard (picture). The facility, which is of the Bingo 3000 type, is owned and operated by Diamond Offshore Netherlands BV. The facility was built in 1982 and received an Acknowledgement of Compliance (AoC) from the Petroleum Safety Authority Norway (PSA) in July 2004.
Statoil is the operator of production licenses 272 and 035 with a 50 per cent ownership interest. The other licensees are Det norske Oljeselskap and Svenska Petroleum.
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Source: Ptil, January 19, 2011;