Transocean rig gearing up to spud Barents Sea wildcat in April

Norway’s state-owned energy giant Equinor has secured a drilling permit with the country’s authorities to drill an exploration well in the Barents Sea with one of Transocean’s semi-submersible rigs.

The Norwegian Offshore Directorate (NOD) granted Equinor a drilling permit for the wellbore 7220/7-CD-1 H in production license 532, awarded on May 15, 2009, and valid until May 15, 2049. Equinor (46.3% interest) operates the license with Vår Energi (30%) and Petoro (23.7%) as partners.

The well is expected to be drilled in April 2025 in the Barents Sea with the Transocean Enabler semi-submersible rig, which was constructed at Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering in South Korea. The 2016-built rig, which is of GVA 4000 NCS design and can accommodate 130 people, has been on a drilling assignment with Equinor for years.

The latest 19-well contract was awarded a few months ago and comes with eight-well options. The total contract value is estimated at $415 million, with the fixed part accounting for $295 million. The Norwegian Offshore Directorate would like to see companies actively explore more frontier areas to realize additional resource potential.

In line with this, the APA 2024 round, entailing the lion’s share of available exploration areas, included the expansion into 34 blocks east of the Barents Sea and three additional ones northwest of the Norwegian Sea.

Equinor found no hydrocarbons at two recently drilled wells after making an oil and gas discovery in an area containing previous commercial discoveries in the Norwegian North Sea.