The Transocean Arctic arrived on the Tyrihans field at Haltenbanken in the Norwegian Sea on 14 April for production drilling.

This is an important milestone which marks the start-up of an extensive drilling programme in the Norwegian Sea.

"We look forward to starting the drilling and completion activities after several years of planning," says Rune Skotvold, head of drilling operations for Tyrihans.

"Transocean Arctic" The planning work for the StatoilHydro-operated Tyrihans field started back in 1986.

The field is one of the largest development projects on the Norwegian continental shelf in the next few years.

The Tyrihans development involves extensive use of multilateral wells and smart wells with downhole regulation and control equipment.

Pumps for seawater injection will be installed directly on the seabed for enhanced recovery.

Eleven wells will be drilled and completed by the "Transocean Arctic". Seven of the wells are multilateral, i.e. that they have several trajectories in the reservoir for maximised oil recovery.

Eight production wells, two gas injectors and one seawater injector will be drilled. In addition, a gas production well is planned to be drilled in 2015.

Most of the wells will be equipped with downhole temperature and pressure gauges.

Tags: StatoilHydro, Tyrihans