Equinor granted drilling permit for North Sea well

Norwegian oil major Equinor has been given a drilling permit to drill the 30/2-5 S well in the North Sea, offshore Norway.

Under the permit, given to Equinor by the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD), the well will be drilled in production license 878 using Seadrill’s West Hercules semi-submersible drilling rig.

Equinor is the operator with an ownership interest of 60 per cent and other licensees are Wellesley and Source Energy with 20 per cent each.

The area in this licence consists of parts of blocks 30/2 and 30/3. The well will be drilled about 17 kilometres south of the Kvitebjørn field.

According to the NPD, this is the first exploration well to be drilled in the license 878.

It is worth noting that Equinor has previously obtained consent for the use of the West Hercules on the well from PSA, the Norwegian offshore safety authority.

At the time, PSA stated that the name of the prospect was Atlantis and that the duration of the drilling operation would be 78 days.

As for Seadrill’s West Hercules, it is a sixth-generation, semi-submersible drilling rig built in 2008 at the Daewoo Shipyard in South Korea.

The rig was issued with an Acknowledgement of Compliance (AoC) by the PSA in 2012.