Norwegian E&P player Aker BP has received consent from the offshore safety body, the Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA), for exploration drilling in the North Sea using the Deepsea Stavanger rig.
The well, named 25/4-12 S and A, is located in production license 203 in the North Sea where Aker BP is the operator.
Announcing its consent for the well on Wednesday, the offshore safety body said that the drilling was planned to start in mid-May 2018 and would last 26 days in a water depth of 121 meters.
The PSA added that the well was part of a prospect called Gekko, in block 25/4 in the Alvheim field.
Aker BP is the operator of the Alvheim field, with a 65 percent interest. Partners in the field are ConocoPhillips with 20 percent interest and Lundin with a 15 percent interest.
The Alvheim field is located in the central part of the North Sea, close to the UK sector, with estimated total recoverable resources of 180 million barrels of oil equivalents.
Alvheim is developed with a floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel and subsea wells. The Vilje, Volund, and Bøyla fields are also tied back to the FPSO.
Deepsea Stavanger is a semi-submersible drilling rig of the GVA 7500 type, built in South Korea in 2010, owned and operated by Odfjell Drilling. It is owned and operated by Odfjell Drilling. The PSA issued Deepsea Stavanger an Acknowledgement of Compliance (AoC) in March 2017.
Offshore Energy Today Staff