Equinor Gets Safety Body Consents for Two Norwegian Sea Projects

Norwegian oil and gas company Equinor has this week received two consents from the offshore safety body Petroleum Safety Authority Norway to carry out works on two projects in the Norwegian Sea using the Transocean Encourage and Deepwater Stavanger offshore drilling rigs.

First, Equinor received the Petroleum Safety Authority Norway's consent to use Transocean's semi-submersible drilling rig Transocean Encourage for a workover of well on the Kristin field. 

Kristin is a field in the Norwegian Sea, in the production license 134 B, a few kilometers southwest of the Åsgard field. The water depth in the area is 370 meters. Kristin was discovered in 1997, and the plan for development and operation (PDO) was approved in 2001. 

The field is developed with four subsea templates and 12 production wells tied-back to a semi-submersible facility for processing. Production started in 2005. The PSA did not say when the workover operation would take place. Equinor operates the offshore license with a 64 percent stake. Its partners are Vår Energi (34 percent) and PGNiG (six percent).

Separately, the PSA granted Equinor its approval for the exploration drilling in block 6507/8 in the Norwegian Sea. Equinor will use Odfjell Drilling's Deepsea Stavanger semi-submersible drilling rig to target the Othello North prospect, located in the production license 124. The well's formal name is the well 6507/8-11 S. Water depth at the site is 290 meters. 

This follows from last week's consent granted for the Othello North by the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate. 

The well is located about 160 km offshore, and about 10 km north of Heidrun. The planned spud date is in September and the drilling is expected to take up to 43 days, according to Norway's Environment Agency. 

According to Equinor's Q2 2022 report, the prospect could contain 43 mm boe pre-drill unrisked. 

Last month, Equinor awarded additional work for Odfjell Drilling's Deepsea Stavanger semi-submersible drilling rig, which will see the rig busy into Q3 2023.  Equinor has the option to exercise further wells under the continued optionality mechanism.

Equinor's partners in Othello North are ConocoPhillips (27%), Petoro (27%), and Vår Energi (10%).