The Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA) said Friday it had granted Aker BP and OMV consents for drilling projects in the North Sea and the Norwegian Sea, respectively.
Aker BP has received consent to conduct exploration drilling in block 25/2 of the North Sea in Production license 442.
Aker BP will drill geopilot wells, namely 25/2-25 A and 25/2-25 S, at Frigg Gamma Delta field.
The water depth at the site is approximately 120 meters, and Aker BP will use Saipem’s Scarabeo 8 semi-submersible drilling rig for the project.
The plan is to develop Frigg-Gamma Delta as part of the Yggdrasil development (formerly NOAKA). In December 2022, three plans for development and operation (PDO) were submitted for the Yggdrasil development, including the projects Hugin, Fulla and Munin. The PDO for Hugin includes a process platform with living quarters, Hugin A, located at Frigg-GammaDelta in the southern part of the Yggdrasil area.
Aker BP recently drilled Norway's longest well nearby, made a discovery, and added more reserves for the Yggdrasil project.
"Large volumes of data were collected while drilling the wildcat well. Along with a planned geopilot on Frigg Gamma Delta later this year, this will be very important in further well planning in the Yggdrasil development," Aker BP said earlier this month.
As for the consent granted to Austria-based OMV, the PSA Norway has approved OMV’s plan to drill the well 6607/3-1 S in the Production License 1016 in the Norwegian Sea.
The well is targeting the Velocette prospect, and will be drilled using the Transocean Norge semi-submersible drilling rig, in a water depth of about 475 meters.
In September 2022, when OMV signed the rig contract for Velocette, Longboat Energy, OMV's partner in the project, said that Velocette was a gas-condensate prospect targeting Cretaceous Nise turbidite sands on the eastern flank of the Utgard High, which have been identified following recent seismic reprocessing.
Longboat said that Velocette benefits from seismic amplitude anomalies indicative of gas-filled sands located within tieback distance from the Equinor-operated producing Aasta Hansteen field (~45 km).