Equinor to use Transocean rig for Visund well workover

Norwegian oil major Equinor has received consent from the offshore safety body, the Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA), to use the Transocean Equinox rig on the Visund field off Norway. 

The PSA said on Friday that the rig would workover the 34/8-D-2 HT2 well located on the Visund field in the North Sea.

According to the safety body, the work is scheduled to begin in early April 2019 and is expected to last for 32 days.

The Transocean-owned and operated Transocean Equinox is a semi-submersible drilling rig of the CAT-D type. The formerly named Songa Equinox received an Acknowledgement of Compliance from the PSA in 2015.

As for the Visund field, it is an oil and gas reservoir located 22 kilometers offshore northeast of the Gullfaks field in the Tampen area outside Norway.

Onstream since the spring of 1999, the field has been developed with a floating production, drilling and quarters platform. The subsea-completed wells on the field are tied back to the floater with flexible risers. Oil is piped to Gullfaks for storage and export.

The Visund field began producing gas and exporting it to continental Europe on October 7, 2005.

It is worth reminding that Equinor made an oil discovery from the Visund platform in the Telesto exploration well earlier this month. According to Equinor, the resources are estimated at 12-28 million barrels of recoverable oil.