The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) has granted Equinor a drilling permit for two wells located in the North Sea off Norway.
The NPD said on Wednesday that wells 35/11-24 S and A will be drilled from the West Hercules drilling rig after concluding the drilling of wildcat well 30/5-2 also for Equinor in production licence 878.
The drilling programme for wells 35/11-24 S and A relates to the drilling of a wildcat well and an appraisal well in production licence 248 C.
Equinor is the operator of the license with an ownership interest of 35 per cent and other licensees are Petoro (40 per cent) and Wellesley Petroleum (25 per cent).
The area in this licence consists of the southwestern part of block 35/11. The well will be drilled about 7 kilometres west of the Fram field.
Production licence 248 C was carved out from production licence 248 on 9 April 2013. These are the third and fourth exploration wells to be drilled in the licence.