Norwegian oil company Statoil has received consent from the Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA), a Norwegian offshore safety agency, to use Saipem’s Scarabeo 5 rig for well activities on the Njord field, offshore Norway.
Statoil is the operator at Njord, an oil field in the Norwegian Sea, located around 130 kilometers north of Kristiansund.
The offshore safety authority has now granted Statoil consent to use the Scarabeo 5 rig for various well activities associated with production wells on the field. According to the agency, the activities on the field are scheduled to begin on November 10, 2016.
The Njord field has been developed using a semi-submersible drilling, accommodation and production platform, Njord A, and the Njord B floating and storage unit (FSU). Production on the field began in 1997. Water depth at the site is 330 meters.
The Njord A platform was recently towed to shore and it is currently located at Kvaerner’s Stord yard where it is being reinforced and renovated for production beyond 2030 as part of the Njord Future project.
Scarabeo 5 is a semi-submersible drilling rig of the ME 4500 type, built by Fincantieri in Genoa in 1990. It is registered in the Bahamas and issued with an Acknowledgment of Compliance (AoC) by the PSA in May 2003.
The rig is under a contract with Statoil until 2017 but it has been suspended several times now due to overcapacity in Statoil’s rig portfolio. The latest suspension ended on August 1 this year after which the semi-sub was used for maintenance of a production well and well intervention on the Snorre field, located in the Tampen area of the North Sea.
Offshore Energy Today Staff