Norwegian oil & gas player ready to spud North Sea wildcat

Norwegian oil and gas company DNO has secured a drilling permit from the country’s authorities for an exploration well in the North Sea off Norway. The drilling work is expected to be carried out using one of the Odfjell Drilling-managed rigs.

The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) disclosed on Wednesday, 26 April 2023, that it had granted DNO a drilling permit for the well 25/7-11 S. This comes weeks after the Norwegian player obtained consent for exploration drilling in block 25/7 in the North Sea from the Petroleum Safety Authority Norway (PSA).

The programme for the well 25/7-11 S entails drilling a wildcat well in production licence 984, which was awarded on 1 March 2019 and is valid until 1 March 2026. DNO is the operator of the licence with an ownership interest of 30 per cent while its partners are Vår Energi (30 per cent), Source Energy (20 per cent) and Equinor (20 per cent).

The prospect, Norma, is expected to be drilled in May 2023 and the water depth at the location is around 121 metres. The well 25/7-11 S will be spudded with the Deepsea Yantai rig, – formerly known as the Beacon Atlantic – which is owned by China’s CIMC and managed by Odfjell Drilling.

The 2019-built Deepsea Yantai rig, which is capable of harsh environment operation, is of a GM4D design. The rig is expected to work for DNO Norge in 2Q/3Q 2023 and drill one firm well in the North Sea.

This rig has several jobs lined up for 2023 and the most recent one was disclosed with PGNiG Upstream Norway in January 2023 while Neptune Energy extended the contract for the use of this rig for two firm wells in Norway.