Two Norwegian Sea wells on Equinor’s drilling agenda for November

Norway’s state-owned energy giant Equinor has secured a drilling permit from the country’s authorities for two wells located in the Norwegian Sea.

The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) informed on Wednesday that the wells 6605/1-2 S and 6605/1-2 A would be drilled using the Deepsea Stavanger rig.

The drilling programme for the well 6605/1-2 S entails the drilling of a wildcat well, while the well 6605/1-2 A is an appraisal well. Both wells are located in production licence 1128, which was originally awarded on 19 February 2021 and is valid until 19 February 2027.

Equinor is the operator of the licence with an ownership interest of 70 per cent, while other licensees are Petoro (20 per cent) and Wintershall Dea Norge (10 per cent).

The drilling operations are expected to start in November 2022 with the Odfjell Drilling-owned Deepsea Stavanger rig, which received an Acknowledgement of Compliance (AoC) from the PSA in April 2017.

After this rig was hired in May 2021 for a firm period of three wells with an expected duration of four months, it became the third one from Odfjell’s fleet to join Equinor, along with its sister units Deepsea Atlantic and Deepsea Aberdeen. The 2010-built Deepsea Stavanger rig started its contract with Equinor on the NCS in February 2022.

The Norwegian giant added additional wells to the contract for this rig in September 2021, March 2022, May 2022, at the start of July 2022, and at the end of July. These wells are expected to keep the rig booked into the third quarter of 2023.

The 2010-built Deepsea Stavanger rig is a sixth-generation deepwater and harsh environment semi-submersible of an enhanced GVA 7500 design. This rig was designed for operations at water depths of up to 3,000 metres and has a 7,500 mt loading capacity.