Norway’s offshore safety agency, the Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA), has given Eni Norge a consent to drill an exploration well in the Barents Sea using the Scarabeo 8 drilling rig.
According to the PSA’s statement on Wednesday, the Norwegian entity of Italian oil major Eni, Eni Norge, applied for consent to drill an exploration well in block 7122/10 in the Barents Sea.
The consent will allow Eni and other licensees to drill well 7122/10-1 S in production license 697 to investigate an exploration prospect named Goliat Eye. The well will be drilled about 10 kilometres southwest of the Goliat field.
The drilling location south of the Goliat field, of which Eni is the operator, at a water depth of 342 meters. The PSA added that the drilling was scheduled to begin in the first half of September, and will last at least 37 days.
The well will be drilled by the Scarabeo 8 mobile drilling rig. It is a semi-submersible drilling rig of the Moss CS50 MKII type, operated by Saipem Norge.
It was built in Russia and Italy and commissioned in 2012. The facility is classified by DNV GL and was issued an Acknowledgement of Compliance (AoC) by the PSA in May 2012.
Production license 697, awarded on February 8, 2013, in APA 2012, is operated by Eni Norge with a 70 percent operating interest. Other licensees are Edison Norge with 20 percent and Concedo ASA which holds the remaining 10 percent. The license was granted in February 2013 and is valid until February 2020.
Eni has also received a drilling permit for the well 7122/10-1 S from the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD). According to the directorate, this is the first well to be drilled in the license.