The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) has granted Neptune Energy a drilling permit for two wildcat wells in the North Sea off Norway.
The drilling programme for wells 34/4-15 S and 34/4-15 A relates to the drilling of wildcat wells in production licence 882, the NPD said on Friday.
The two wildcat wells will be drilled from the Deepsea Yantai drilling rig after concluding the drilling of production wells on the Duva field.
Neptune has already received the offshore safety clearance to use the Deepsea Yantai rig for these wells.
The semi-sub is expected to work on the two Dugong wells between 44 and 90 days.
Neptune Energy Norge is the operator of the licence with an ownership interest of 40 per cent.
Other licensees are Concedo (20 per cent), Petrolia NOCO (20 per cent), and Idemitsu Petroleum Norge (20 per cent).
The area in this licence consists of parts of blocks 33/6 and 34/4. The wells will be drilled about ten kilometres northwest of the Snorre field.
Production licence 882 was awarded on 10 February 2017 in (APA 2016).
These are the first and second exploration wells to be drilled in the licence.