Repsol’s Norwegian unit, Repsol Norge, has received consent from the country’s Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA) for the use of Rowan Stavanger jack-up rig for permanent plugging of wells on the Varg field off Norway.
The wells to be plugged are in production license 038 which is in the southern sector of the North Sea, around 230 kilometers south-west of Stavanger. The oil company hired the Rowan-owned rig for this assignment earlier this year.
Planned start-up of the operation is the beginning of September 2017, with an expected duration of approximately 208 days.
Rowan Stavanger is a jack-up rig of the KFELS N class, delivered in 2011 by Keppel FELS Shipyard of Singapore. Rowan Stavanger is operated by Rowan Drilling Norway.
Varg is an oil field in the North Sea, around 220 kilometers south-west of Utsira in Rogaland county. The field was developed using the Varg A wellhead facility, subsea structures and the Petrojarl Varg mobile production facility (FPSO). Production from the field began in 1998.
Repsol decided to shut down the unprofitable Varg field back in 2016. The shutdown of Varg entailed the removal of Petrojarl Varg FPSO and the subsea structures on the field.