Thursday 12 July 2018

Petroleum Safety Authority Norway have given Equinor consent for exploration drilling in block 7220/5 in the Barents Sea.

The consent covers drilling of exploration well 7220/5-3 in production licence 532 in the Barents Sea.

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

The geographical coordinates of the drilling site will be:

72º 35’ 53.39” N

20º 22’ 59.64” E

The drilling site is around 215 kilometres north-west of Sørøya in Finnmark and around 150 kilometres north-west of the Goliat field.

Water depth at the site is 409 metres.

Drilling is scheduled to begin in August 2018. The activity is estimated to last 27 days.

Well 7220/5-3 is to be drilled by the Songa Enabler mobile drilling facility. This is a semi-submersible drilling facility of the CAT D type. It was delivered by the Daewoo yard in South Korea in 2016, is registered in Norway and classified by DNV-GL.

Songa Enabler was issued with an Acknowledgement of Compliance (AoC) by the PSA in July 2016.