The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) has granted Aker BP a drilling permit for a wildcat well in the North Sea offshore Norway.
Wildcat well 24/9-13 will be drilled from the Scarabeo 8 drilling rig after drilling of the wildcat well 6406/6-6 S in production license 255 B in the southern part of the Norwegian Sea.
The drilling program for well 24/9-13 relates to the drilling of a wildcat well in production license 869 where Aker BP ASA is the operator with an ownership interest of 60 percent.
The other licensees are Lundin Norway AS and Point Resources AS with a 20 percent interest each.
NPD said on Thursday that the area in this license consisted of parts of blocks 24/9, 24/12 and 25/7. The well will be drilled about four kilometers southwest of the Bøyla field in the central part of the North Sea.
Production license 869 was awarded on February 10, 2017. This is the first exploration well to be drilled in the license itself, but several wildcat wells have been drilled previously within the licence area.
As for the rig, the Scarabeo 8 is a semi-submersible drilling facility 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 registered in the Bahamas.
Aker BP recently received consent from the Petroleum Safety Authority for the use of the Scarabeo 8 rig for drilling of the 24/9-13 well.