Wednesday 11 July 2018

Petroleum Safety Authority Norway have given Equinor consent for exploration drilling in block 7132/2 in the Barents Sea.

The consent covers drilling of exploration well 7132/2-1 in production licence 857 in the eastern Barents Sea.

The purpose of the well is to investigate a prospect that the licensees have named "Gjøkåsen".

The geographical coordinates of the drilling site will be:

71° 51’ 55.87’’ N

32° 25’ 56.41’’ E

Water depth at the site is 293 metres.

Drilling is scheduled to begin in early August 2018. The activity is estimated to last 28.5 days.

Well 7132/2-1 is to be drilled by the West Hercules mobile drilling facility. This is a semi-submersible drilling facility of the GVA 7500 type, operated by North Atlantic Drilling.

West Hercules was issued with an Acknowledgement of Compliance (AoC) by the PSA in December 2012.