Green light for Aker BP to use Transocean rig on North Sea wildcat

Norwegian E&P player Aker BP has received consent from the offshore safety body, the Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA), to drill a wildcat well off Norway with the Transocean Arctic semi-submersible rig.

The safety agency said on Thursday that the well would be drilled in the Aker BP-operated production license 790 in the North Sea.

The drilling of the well, named 34/2-5 S, is scheduled to begin in December 2017 with a duration of some 150 days, depending on whether a discovery is made. Water depth at the site is around 386 meters.

To remind, the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD), a government agency in charge of the country’s petroleum sector, granted Aker BP drilling permits for four wells in the North Sea earlier this week, one of which was for the 34/2-5 S well.

The well will be drilled by the Transocean Arctic, a semi-submersible mobile drilling rig of the Marosso 56 type, built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in Japan in 1987. It was upgraded in 2004, classified by DNV GL, and registered in the Marshall Islands.

The Transocean-operated rig was issued with an Acknowledgement of Compliance by the PSA in July 2004.