Oil company Lundin has received consent from the Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA) to drill an exploration well in the Barents Sea with the Ocean Rig-owned Leiv Eiriksson drilling rig.
The well is located in block 7220 in the Lundin-operated production license 609 in the Barents Sea off Norway.
The offshore safety body gave its consent to the oil company’s Norwegian entity, Lundin Norway, to drill the exploration well designated as 7220/11-4 in a prospect named Alta.
According to the offshore safety agency, the drilling is scheduled to start this May and it will last 65 days. The consent also includes possible side tracking and production testing.
This consent was granted on condition that the activity is terminated by the beginning of October 2017.
The drilling on the Alta prospect comes after the company drilled a dry appraisal well on the Gohta discovery, located only 15 kilometers from the 7220/11-4 exploration well location.
The 7120/1-5 appraisal well on the Gohta discovery was also drilled by the Leiv Eiriksson rig, which, upon plugging the well, will move northeast to spud the Alta prospect.
The Leiv Eiriksson is a semi-submersible drilling rig of the Bingo 9000 type, owned and operated by Ocean Rig. It was built in China in 2001, fitted out in the USA, and was issued with an acknowledgment of compliance by the PSA in July 2008.