Det norske oljeselskap ASA (Det norske) has received consent to carry out exploration drilling in the North Sea with the Mærsk Guardian mobile facility.
The consent relates to the drilling of exploration well 3/4-2S which belongs to production licence 356, with Det norske as the operator (60%). Resol Exploration Norge AS is the partner with a 40% ownership interest.
The well is located in the southern part of the North Sea, about 62 kilometres west of Ekofisk.
Well 3/4-2S has the following geographical coordinates:
N 56° 38′ 47.239″, E 004° 05′ 38.177″. The water depth at the site is 51 metres.
The earliest expected start-up of the operation is late September/early October 2011. The duration of the activity has been estimated at about 50 days.
A potential well test has been planned with an additional 20 days, and a potential sidetrack with an additional 14 days. This results in an overall operation duration of up to 84 days.
Mærsk Guardian is a jack-up drilling facility built in 1986 at the Hitachi yard in Japan. It is operated by Maersk Drilling Norge AS.
The facility received an Acknowledgement of Compliance (AoC) in November 2002, which was renewed by the Petroleum Safety Authority Norway (PSA) in July 2007.
[mappress] Source:PTIL , August 11, 2011;