Norway’s Bayerngas Norge has received consent from the Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA) to drill an exploration well in the North Sea with the Songa Enabler drilling rig.
The well is located in production license 682 in the North Sea where Bayerngas is the operator. The offshore safety body has now given its consent to the company to drill the exploration well designated as 35/9-13, in a discovery named Tethys.
To remind, the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) already granted Bayerngas Norge a drilling permit for the wildcat well in late September .
According to the PSA statement on Wednesday, the drilling was scheduled to begin in mid-October 2017.
The Songa Enabler rig is under a long-term contract with Statoil. However, back in March 2017 Statoil and Bayerngas entered into an agreement regarding Operational Well Model to drill the Tethys prospect using the rig.
The two companies agreed that the 35/9-13 well would be drilled by the Songa Enabler after the rig completed the Koigen Central wildcat well for Statoil. As Offshore Energy Today reported earlier this week , Statoil hit dust in the Koigen well, so the rig is free to proceed to drill the well for Bayerngas.
As for the rig, the Songa Enabler is a semi-submersible drilling rig of the CAT D type. It was delivered by the Daewoo yard in South Korea in 2016, is registered in Norway and classified by DNV GL. Songa Enabler was issued an Acknowledgement of Compliance (AoC) by the PSA in July 2016.