Equinor Gets NPD OK for North Sea Well

OE Staff Published May 11, 2020 7:54 am ET

The West Hercules drilling rig in the Barents Sea. (Photo: Ole Jørgen Bratland/Equinor)

Norwegian oil firm Equinor has been given a drilling permit to drill the well 30/2-5 S in the North Sea, offshore Norway.

Under the drilling permit granted by the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate, Equinor will drill the well 30/2-5 S in Production License 878 using Seadrill's West Hercules semi-submersible drilling rig.

The drilling will begin following the conclusion of the drilling of wildcat well 35/10-6 in production license 827 S, where Equinor is also the operator.
The drilling program for well 30/2-5 S relates to the drilling of a wildcat well.

Equinor Energy AS is the operator with an ownership interest of 60 percent. The other licensees are Wellesley Petroleum AS (20 percent) and Source Energy AS (20 percent).

The area in this license consists of parts of blocks 30/2 and 30/3. The well will be drilled about 17 kilometers south of the Kvitebjørn field.

This is the first exploration well to be drilled in the license 878. Equinor has previously obtained consent from the country's offshore safety authority PSA Norway to drill the 30/2-5 S. PSA Norway then said that the name of the prospect was Atlantis.

Water depth at the site is 142 meters and the drilling is expected to take 78 days to complete.