Statoil has received consent to use the West Epsilon mobile facility on the Gudrun field for drilling and completion of production wells.
Gudrun is located in the central part of the North Sea. The field is part of production licence 025 and the plan is to develop the field with a process facility with integrated living quarters.
The drilling period will be carried out in two phases. The first phase entails drilling through the facility’s steel jacket, and the second phase will be carried out following installation of the platform deck.
The steel jacket will be placed at the location during the summer of 2011. The deck is scheduled to be installed during the summer of 2013.
West Epsilon’s planned position for drilling the wells on Gudrun is:
N 58° 50′ 42.87″, E 01° 44′ 37.44″. The water depth at the site is 109 metres.
The distance to Stavanger is approx. 230 kilometres.
The scheduled start-up date for the drilling activity is around mid-August 2011. The operation is expected to be completed by December 2013.
The West Epsilon jack-up drilling facility (photo) is operated by North Atlantic Drilling, formerly Seadrill Offshore AS.
The Petroleum Safety Authority Norway (PSA) granted an Acknowledgement of Compliance (AoC) to West Epsilon on 14 February 2003.
[mappress] Source: PTIL, August 3, 2011;