Norwegian Ocean Industry Authority (Havtil), the country’s offshore industry safety watchdog, has denied acknowledgement of compliance (AoC) application for Shelf Drililng’s Barsk jack-up, consequently delaying the drilling assignment with Equinor on the Sleipner Vest field, off Norway.
Havtil’s AoC expresses the regulator’s confidence that petroleum operations can be pursued by a mobile facility in compliance with the regulations.
As a result, Shelf Dirlling’s Barsk rig can not start its drilling contract until the AoC has been obtained.
Barsk jack up rig was scheduled to start operations with Equinor at the Sleipner Vest field in May 2024, as part of the contract announced in April 2023, with an initial scope of two wells and an estimated duration of 270 days, with options for two wells.
In April 2024, Shelf Drilling has secured a contract extension for the rig for operations at the Gudrun field located offshore Norway.
The firm term of the extension is two wells with an estimated duration of 254 days in total.
The contract extension also includes options for three wells at Gudrun, located on the Norwegian Continental Shelf.
According to the offshore drilling contractor, it plans to continue constructive dialogue with Havtil in order to obtain the AoC and start the announced drilling contract.
The Sleipner Vest field with block 15/6 og 15/9 was discovered in 1974. The production of gas and condensate started in August 1996.
Sleipner Vest is developed with two platforms: the production/wellhead platform Sleipner B and the processing and gas treatment platform Sleipner T.
As part of the Sleipner Vest development, the satellite field Alfa Nord (also gas/condensate) was tied back to Sleipner T platform.
The gas from Sleipner Vest is exported into the Gassled transport system, while the unstable condensate is transported in pipeline to Kårstø in Rogaland for further processing.