MOL preparing to drill appraisal well in North Sea

The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) has granted MOL Norge a drilling permit for an appraisal well in the North Sea.

The well 25/8-21 S will be drilled from the Transocean Barents drilling rig, the NPD said on Thursday.

The drilling programme for the well 25/8-21 S relates to the drilling of an appraisal well in production licence 820 S, where the company last year made an oil and gas discovery.

MOL Norge is the operator of the licence with an ownership interest of 40 per cent. Other licensees are Lundin Energy Norway (41 per cent), Pandion Energy (12.5 per cent), and Wintershall Dea Norge (6.5 per cent).

The area in this licence consists of parts of blocks 25/7 and 25/8. The well will be drilled about 11 kilometres north of the Balder field.

The production licence 820 S was awarded on 5 February 2016 (APA2015). This is the third exploration well to be drilled in the licence.

MOL Norge has already received safety consent from the Norwegian Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA) to drill the well using the Transocean Barents rig.

According to the PSA, the prospect is named Iving Appraisal and it is located in water depth of 128 meters.

The drilling operations are expected to last for 36 days in case of a dry hole or 57 days in case of a discovery.