Norwegian oil company Statoil has received consent from the Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA) to use the Songa Encourage rig for well activities at Norne field, Norne satellites, and Alve, off Norway.
Statoil is the operator of the Norne field in the Norwegian Sea, west of Mo i Rana in Nordland county. The field has been developed using a floating production and storage (FPSO) unit, tied to the well templates on the seabed.
Water depth at the Norne field is 380 meters. The oil is transported from the Norne FPSO by tanker, while the gas is piped to Kårstø in Rogaland county and on to Germany. Production at Norne began in 1997.
Statoil recently made an oil discovery northwest of the Norne field in a prospect named Cape Vulture . The operator and its partner are considering further delineation of the discovery with regard to a potential development via the Norne FPSO.
The second field where Statoil will be using the Songa-owned rig is the Alve field, which is 16 kilometers southwest of Norne, and other satellite fields are tied back to the Norne FPSO.
The company has now received consent to use the Songa Encourage drilling rig to perform well activities on these fields. The activities include drilling wells for production or injection, well overhaul and other intervention work, as well as plugging.
The rig recently suffered an incident while working for Statoil on the Heidrun field. Namely, the rig had to be sent to Kristiansund for repairs after a water leak in the rig’s pump room in early January.
According to information from the rig’s owner, the Cat D rig will be back in operations in early February 2017.
Songa Encourage is a semi-submersible drilling rig of the Cat D type, owned and operated by Songa Offshore. It was built by the Daewoo yard in South Korea in 2016 and registered in Norway. The rig was issued with an Acknowledgement of Compliance (AoC) by the PSA in April 2016.
Offshore Energy Today Staff