Oil and gas companies Equinor and ConocoPhillips on Friday received approvals for drilling of offshore wells in the North Sea, and the Norwegian Sea, respectively.
Equinor has been given a regulatory approval from the oil and gas safety body PSA Norway to drill a sidetrack in an exploration well 35/11-24 in the North Sea, at the Swisher prospect.
The well 35/11-24 B will be drilled in the water depth of 356 meters. Equinor will use Seadrill’s 2008-built West Hercules semi-submersible drilling rig. The drilling is expected to take 63 days to complete.
The drilling of the Swisher follows a recent success by Equinor at the Atlantis well, using the same rig, also in the North Sea. At the Atlantis, Equinor made a gas/condensate find estimated to hold up to 63 million barrels of oil equivalent.
Slagugle drilling
Separately, the PSA Norway gave its consent on Friday to ConocoPhillips to drill an exploration well at the Slagugle prospect in the Norwegian Sea.
The U.S. oil firm will drill the well formally named 6507/5-10 S using the Transocean Leiv Eiriksson semi-submersible drilling unit.
The well, located in the production license 891 will take 47 days to complete. It is located in a water depth of 354 meters.
The Leiv Eiriksson, built in 2001, has a $235,000 a day contract with ConocoPhillips until November 2020.