Norwegian offshore safety regulator, the Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA), has given its consent to Lundin to use the COSLInnovator rig for an exploration well offshore Norway.
The exploration well 16/4-11 is located in production license 359 in the North Sea where Lundin is the operator with a 50% interest. Other licensees are OMV (Norge) AS (20 per cent), Statoil (15 per cent), and Wintershall Norge (15 per cent).
According to the safety agency, drilling is planned to start in February 2018, with a duration of around 47 days, depending on whether a discovery is made.
The well is to be drilled by COSLInnovator, which is a semi-submersible drilling rig constructed at the Yantai Raffles Shipyard in China. The rig was issued with an Acknowledgement of Compliance (AoC) by the PSA in 2012.
Lundin hired the COSL Drilling-owned semi-submersible back in July 2017.