Oil company Lundin Norway is ready to drill a wildcat well in the Barents Sea following the receipt of a drilling permit from the Norwegian authorities.
The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) said on Wednesday it had granted Lundin Norway a drilling permit for the well 7121/1-2 S located in production license 767 in the Barents Sea offshore Norway.
The well 7121/1-2 S will be drilled from the Ocean Rig-owned Leiv Eiriksson semi-submersible drilling rig. Lundin has already received safety clearance from the country’s offshore safety watchdog to use the Ocean Rig’s semi-sub for this well.
The drilling program for well 7121/1-2 S relates to the drilling of a wildcat well in production license 767 where Lundin Norway is the operator with an ownership interest of 60 percent and its partner is Inpex Norge with a 40% interest.
Operations are scheduled to start in December 2018, with a duration of 52 days in a water depth of 315 meters.
The area in this license consists of the following blocks/parts of blocks: 7120/3, 7121/1, 7121/2 and 7121/4. The well will be drilled about 20 kilometers north of the Snøhvit field and about 25 kilometers east of the 7120/2-3 S, (Skalle) gas discovery, and will test the prospect there (Setter/Pointer).
Production license 767 was awarded on February 7, 2014, in APA 2013 on the Norwegian Shelf and this is the first well to be drilled in the license.