Saipem rig gearing up to spud Aker BP’s wildcat pair

Norwegian oil and gas player Aker BP has received the Norwegian authorities’ blessing to drill two exploration wells in the Norwegian Sea, off the coast of Norway, with a semi-submersible rig owned by Italy’s Saipem.

The Norwegian Offshore Directorate (NOD) has granted Aker BP a drilling permit for wellbore 6306/6-3 S in production license 886 and 6507/5-13 S in production license 212, both located in the Norwegian Sea.

Aker BP (60%) operates the first license with ConocoPhillips Skandinavia (20%) and Petoro (20%) as its partners. The partners in the second license are Equinor (30%), Aker BP (30%), Wintershall Dea Norge, now Harbour Energy, (25%), and ORLEN Upstream Norway (15%).

While the first wildcat well, 6306/6-3 S, is scheduled to be spud in January 2025, the second one, 6507/5-13 S, is slated for February 2025. These wells will be drilled with Saipem’s Scarabeo 8 rig.

Aker BP extended the rig’s stay on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS) in September 2024, prolonging the unit’s assignment in Norway until the end of 2026. The semi-submersible secured a three-year deal worth $325 million in March 2022 and began its assignment in early 2023.

With an accommodation capacity of 140 people and a maximum drilling depth of 35,000 feet (about 10,668 meters), Scarabeo 8 is a sixth-generation dual derrick deepwater semi-submersible drilling rig. Based on a recent video, Saipem’s Scarabeo 8 semi-submersible rig participated in the trials for a core drilling technology solution.

While Aker BP had no luck finding hydrocarbons at its recently drilled well in the North Sea, the firm delineated a two-year-old gas discovery in the Norwegian Sea in October 2023. As a result, it is considering a subsea tie-back to existing infrastructure as a development option.