Norwegian oil and gas player Aker BP has received the Norwegian authorities’ blessing to drill two exploration wells in the Norwegian Sea, off the coast of Norway, with a semi-submersible rig owned by Italy’s Saipem.
The Norwegian Offshore Directorate (NOD) has granted Aker BP a drilling permit for wellbore 6306/6-3 S in production license 886 and 6507/5-13 S in production license 212 , both located in the Norwegian Sea.
Aker BP (60%) operates the first license with ConocoPhillips Skandinavia (20%) and Petoro (20%) as its partners. The partners in the second license are Equinor (30%), Aker BP (30%), Wintershall Dea Norge, now Harbour Energy, (25%), and ORLEN Upstream Norway (15%).
While the first wildcat well, 6306/6-3 S, is scheduled to be spud in January 2025, the second one, 6507/5-13 S, is slated for February 2025. These wells will be drilled with Saipem’s Scarabeo 8 rig.
Aker BP extended the rig’s stay on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS) in September 2024, prolonging the unit’s assignment in Norway until the end of 2026. The semi-submersible secured a three-year deal worth $325 million in March 2022 and began its assignment in early 2023.
With an accommodation capacity of 140 people and a maximum drilling depth of 35,000 feet (about 10,668 meters), Scarabeo 8 is a sixth-generation dual derrick deepwater semi-submersible drilling rig. Based on a recent video, Saipem’s Scarabeo 8 semi-submersible rig participated in the trials for a core drilling technology solution.
While Aker BP had no luck finding hydrocarbons at its recently drilled well in the North Sea, the firm delineated a two-year-old gas discovery in the Norwegian Sea in October 2023. As a result, it is considering a subsea tie-back to existing infrastructure as a development option.