The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) has granted Norwegian Energy Company (Noreco) ASA a drilling permit for well 17/6-1, cf. Section 8 of the Resource Management Regulations.

Well 17/6-1 will be drilled from the West Alpha drilling facility after the facility completes the drilling of appraisal well 34/4-13 S for Petro-Canada Norge AS in production licence 375.

The drilling programme for well 17/6-1 relates to drilling a wildcat well in production licence 545. Noreco is the operator with a 50 per cent ownership interest. The other licensees are Spring Energy Norway AS (30 per cent) and Petoro AS (20 per cent). The area in this licence consists of block 17/3, as well as parts of blocks 17/2, 5 and 6. The well was drilled about 100 kilometres southeast of the Grane field in the central part of the North Sea.

Production licence 545 was awarded on 19 February 2010 (APA2009). This is the first well to be drilled within the licence area.

This permit is contingent on the operator securing all other consents and permits required by other authorities before the drilling activity commences.

Tags: Norwegian Energy Company ASA, Norwegian Petroleum Directorate