Austrian oil and gas company OMV has received consent from the offshore safety body, the Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA), for exploration drilling in the Norwegian Sea using the Deepsea Bergen drilling rig.
The consent was given for two wells, designated 6506/11-11 S and 6506/11-11 A, located in production license 644/644 B in the Norwegian Sea where OMV is the operator.
OMV holds a 30 percent stake while its partners in the license are Equinor, Faroe, and Spirit Energy which hold 40, 20, and 10 percent stakes respectively.
The safety body said on Friday that the operation was scheduled to begin in the second quarter of 2019, in a water depth of around 381 meters.
The PSA added that the wells would be drilled by Deepsea Bergen, a semi-submersible drilling rig of the Aker H-3.2 type, built by Aker Verdal in 1983. The rig is owned and operated by Odfjell Drilling.
Deepsea Bergen was issued with an Acknowledgement of Compliance (AoC) by the PSA in December 2001.
To remind, OMV signed the Deepsea Bergen on a contract for one well in April 2018. The contract included options for two additional wells.
In June 2018, the parties agreed to add a third optional well to the contract . At the time, Odfjell said that the contract extension was set for the second quarter of 2019 with an expected duration of approximately 140 days with a total contract value of up to $28 million.
It is worth adding that the Deepsea Bergen spent several days in March 2019 at Norway’s offshore services provider Coast Center Base (CCB) for an upgrade of the lifeboat system to meet the requirements of the British sector.
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