Norwegian oil major Equinor has been given a drilling permit to drill a new wildcat well in the Barents Sea, offshore Norway.
Under the permit, given to Equinor by the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD), the well will be drilled in production license 532 using Transocean’s Transocean Enabler semi-submersible drilling rig, previously known as Songa Enabler.
Equinor is the operator with an ownership interest of 50 per cent and other licensees are Vår Energi and Petoro with 30 and 20 per cent stakes, respectively.
The area in this licence consists of parts of blocks 7219/9, 7220/4, 7220/5, 7220/7, and 7220/8. The well – a prospect named Isflak – will be drilled about 10 kilometres southwest of the 7220/8-1 discovery well on the Johan Castberg field. According to the NPD, this is the eleventh exploration well to be drilled in the licence.
It is worth noting that Equinor has previously obtained consent for the use of the Transocean Enabler on the well from PSA, the Norwegian offshore safety authority.
PSA said at the time that the water depth at the site is 351 metres and that the drilling operations were estimated to last about 30 days.