Equinor kicks off drilling operations in Norwegian Sea

Norwegian oil and gas player Equinor has started drilling the Ginny exploration well located in the Norwegian Sea, using a semi-submersible rig.

The Ginny exploration well 6407/9-13 is located in production license PL1060, which is operated by Equinor with a 31 per cent working interest. Other licensees are OKEA (40 per cent WI), Chrysaor Norge (20 per cent WI), and Longboat Energy Norge (9 per cent WI).

The license was awarded in the APA 2019 licensing round and is located northwest of the Draugen field, which is operated by OKEA (44.56 per cent WI).

Equinor secured the drilling permit for the well from the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) in October 2021.

OKEA revealed on Monday that the drilling operations on the Equinor-operated Ginny exploration well 6407/9-13 had started from the West Hercules rig.

The well targets both an Upper Jurassic (Ginny) and a Middle Jurassic (Hermine) prospect located between the Galtvort and Hasselmus discoveries.

‘’This is the first of three exploration wells we will be drilling the coming year, all focussed on near-field exploration near our Draugen and Gjøa producing fields,” said Andrew McCann, SVP Subsurface & Wells in OKEA.

“This type of exploration is core to OKEA’s strategy of identifying upside potential for our producing assets and a discovery in this area could be developed rapidly through use of existing infrastructure,” McCann added.