Wednesday 20 June 2018

The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate has granted Aker BP ASA a drilling permit for wells 25/10-16 S, 25/10-16 A and 25/10-16 B, cf. Section 15 of the Resource Management Regulations.

The wells will be drilled from the Maersk Intrepid drilling facility, at position 59°02'12.88" North and 2°13'41.63" East after drilling production wells on the Martin Linge field in the northern part of the North Sea.

The drilling programme for wells 25/10-16 S and 25/10-16 A relates to the drilling of two appraisal wells and the drilling of one wildcat well 25/10-16 B in production licence 028 B. Aker BP ASA is the operator with an ownership interest of 35 per cent. The other licensees are Equinor Energy AS (50 per cent) and Spirit Energy Norge AS (15 per cent).

The area in this licence consists of part of block 25/10. The wells will be drilled about ten kilometres north of the Ivar Aasen field in the central part of the North Sea.

Production licence 028 B was awarded on 15 December 1999, and was carved out of production licence 028 which was awarded in 1969 in the 2nd licensing round on the Norwegian shelf. These are the first three exploration wells to be drilled within the actual licence, but two exploration wells were drilled when oil and gas discovery 25/10-8 Hanz was proven and delineated for the first time in 1997.

The permit is contingent upon the operator securing all other permits and consents required by other authorities prior to commencing drilling activities.