Eni Norge, a Norwegian subsidiary of the Italian oil company Eni, has received consent from the Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA) to drill an exploration well in the Barents Sea with the Scarabeo 8 drilling rig.
The well is located in production license 716 in blocks 7318/11 and 7318/12, in the Barents Sea, where Eni Norge is the operator.
The safety agency informed on Monday that the company received its consent to drill the well 7318/12-11 in a prospect named Boné-Bigorna with the Scarabeo 8 drilling rig.
The drilling location is around 320 kilometers north-west of Hammerfest and water depth at the site is 418 meters. The safety authority said the drilling work is scheduled to take 55 days.
Offshore Energy Today has reached out to Saipem asking about the expected drilling start date. We will update the article with any response we receive.
In preparation for drilling operations in the Barents Sea, Eni recently hired Simon Møkster Shipping’s newest vessel, Stril Mar , to assist the Scarabeo 8 offshore drilling rig during exploration and production drilling.
According to the latest AIS data, the rig is currently located off Ølen, Norway. It arrived there in August this year for routine maintenance at Westcon’s yard after it had completed the drilling of Aurelia wildcat , also in the Barents Sea. The well turned up dry.
The Scarabeo 8 6th generation, semi-sub rig is owned and operated by Saipem, issued with an Acknowledgement of Compliance (AoC) by the PSA in May 2012.
The rig is of a Moss CS 50 MkII design. It was built at the Fincantieri Shipyard in Palermo, Italy and completed at the Westcon yard in Ølensvåg in Hordaland county in 2011.
Offshore Energy Today Staff