Austrian oil and gas firm OMV has been granted a permit for the drilling of the offshore well 6506/11-12 S in the Norwegian Sea.
The company's Norwegian subsidiary OMV Norge will use the Island Innovator semi-submersible to drill the appraisal well at the prospect named Hades in the production license 644.
OMV Norge is the operator with an ownership interest of 30 percent. The other licensees are Equinor (40 percent), DNO (20 percent), and Spirit Energy (10 percent).
The well will be drilled about 4 kilometers west of the Morvin field. This is the second exploration well to be drilled in the license.
The drilling permit, granted by the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate, is contingent on the operator securing all other permits and consents required by other authorities prior to starting the drilling activity.
Earlier this month, OMV was granted permission by the Petroleum Safety Authority.
In its application for an environmental permit, filed in February, OMV said the drilling was planned to begin on June 1, 2020, at the earliest.
OMV made the gas and condensate discovery in the block in 2018. The preliminary estimates indicated a discovery size of 40 to 245 million barrels of oil equivalent.
OMV in June last year signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Equinor related to the Hades/Iris gas discovery.
Under the memorandum, the two companies have committed to cooperate on finding the best solution for the development and tie-in of Hades/Iris to existing infrastructure, given the proximity of producing fields where Equinor is the operator.