Transocean Arctic (photo: Transocean Offshore)

The Norwegian Petroleum Safety Authority has granted Faroe Petroleum consent to drill an exploration well in block 37/1.

Faroe Petroleum Norge AS (Faroe Petroleum) is the operator for production licence 740 in the North Sea. The exploration well will be the first to be drilled in this production licence. It will be drilled in a prospect named Brasse, with the designation 31/7-1. The location is 16 km south-east of Oseberg A and approx. 93 km west of Sotra in Hordaland. Water depth at the site is 188 metres.

The drilling will start in the second half of May at the earliest, with an estimated duration of up to 57 days.

The drilling will be performed using Transocean Arctic, which is a semi-submersible mobile drilling facility operated by Transocean Offshore (North Sea) Ltd NUF. It was built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in Japan in 1987, and substantially upgraded in 2004.

Transocean Arctic was issued with an Acknowledgement of Compliance (AoC) by the PSA in July 2004.

Tags: Faroe Petroleum, Petroleum Safety Authority