Green light for Statoil’s third Barents Sea well

The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) has granted Statoil a drilling permit for wellbore 7325/4-1, in the Barents Sea off Norway. 

The permit comes after the Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA), Norway’s offshore safety body, gave Statoil consent to use the Songa Enabler drilling rig for the well.

The well 7325/4-1 is located in the Hoop area in the on a prospect named Gemini Nord. The well site lies some 275 kilometers from Nordkapp and 200 kilometers from Bjørnøya. The drilling program for wellbore 7325/4-1, expected to last for 19 days, relates to the drilling of a wildcat well in production license 855.

The area in this license consists of the blocks 7324/5, 7324/6, 7325/4, and 7325/5. The well will be drilled about 30 kilometers northeast of the Wisting discovery well 7324/8-1 in production license 537. Statoil is the operator with an ownership interest of 55 percent with the licensees being OMV and Petoro with 25 and 20 percent respectively.

Earlier this year, Statoil revealed its plans to drill five wells in the Barents Sea during the year. The first of five, the Blåmann well, was spud on May 22 while Offshore Energy Today reported earlier on Monday that the second well, Kayak, struck oil. This makes the Gemini Nord wellbore the third well in Statoil’s Barents Sea campaign.

Now that the duties of the Songa Enabler on the Kayak well have been completed, the rig will return and complete the Blåmann well, after which drilling at Gemini North will start. Statoil said on Monday that all of the necessary permits were in place and that the work could start as early as July 10.