The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) has granted Vår Energi a drilling permit for a wildcat well located in the Barents Sea off Norway.
The well 7122/6-3 S will be drilled from the Scarabeo 8 drilling rig after concluding the drilling of development wells on the Goliat field for Vår Energi.
The drilling programme for well 7122/6-3 S relates to the drilling of a wildcat well in production licence 901 . Vår Energi is the operator of the licence with an ownership interest of 50 per cent. Other licensees are Longboat Energ (20 per cent), Concedo (20 per cent), and Equinor (10 per cent).
The area in this licence consists of parts of blocks 7122/5, 7122/6 and 7123/4. The well will be drilled about 30 kilometres northeast of the Goliat field and about 13 kilometres south of the discovery well, 7122/6-1.
Production licence 901 was awarded on 10 February 2017 (APA2016) and this is the first exploration well to be drilled in the licence.
Earlier this year, Vår Energi made an oil and gas discovery in the King and Prince exploration wells in the Balder area in the Southern North Sea, using the Scarabeo 8 rig.
The combined King and Prince exploration wells proved successful with the latest preliminary estimates showing volumes between 60-135 million barrels of recoverable oil equivalents.
Following the completion of these operations, the rig was expected to visit the shipyard in Ølen before drilling development well 7122/7-D-2 H in production license 229 in the Barents Sea for the same company.