Norwegian oil and gas company Equinor has spudded the Egyptian Vulture exploration well in the Norwegian Sea.
Longboat Energy, the recently formed E&P company, and Equinor's partner in the project with a 15 percent stake, announced the spud on Tuesday.
Equinor is using Seadrill's West Hercules semi-submersible drilling rig to drill the well.
The Egyptian Vulture well is targeting gross mean prospective resources of 103 mmboe with further potential upside to bring the total to 208 mmboe on a gross basis. The chance of success associated with this prospect is 25% with the key risk being related to reservoir quality and thickness, Longboat Energy, a company formed by ex-Faroe Petroleum management.
The well is expected to take up to seven weeks to drill.
Helge Hammer, Chief Executive of Longboat, said: "I am pleased that we have now commenced drilling operations on our second exploration well in our short-term three-well program following the commencement of the Rødhette well last week. It is no overstatement to say that the next few weeks will be an extremely busy and exciting time for Longboat with each of these wells having the potential to create significant shareholder value."
"The exploration program over the next 18 months offers shareholders a unique opportunity to gain exposure to a drilling portfolio of seven wells targeting net mean prospective resource potential of 104MMboe with an additional 220 MMboe of upside which provides the potential to create a Net Asset Value of over $1 billion based on precedent transactions in the Norwegian North Sea for development assets."