Statoil Gets NPD Nod for North Sea Drilling

Statoil Gets NPD Nod for North Sea Drilling

Friday, April 15, 2011
Norwegian Petroleum Directorate

The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate has granted a drilling permit for wellbore 6407/3-1 S, cf. Section 8 of the Resource Management Regulations.

Wellbore 6407/3-1 S will be drilled from the Transocean Leader drilling facility at position 64°46'32.49" N and 7°42'14.23" E after it has completed drilling of wildcat well 6407/4-2 for Statoil ASA in production license 429.

The drilling program for wellbore 6407/3-1 S relates to drilling of a wildcat well in production license 312 where Statoil ASA is the operator with an ownership interest of 59 percent. The other licensees are ExxonMobil Exploration & Production Norway AS (24 percent) and Eni Norge AS (17 percent). The area in this license consists of part of block 6407/3 and part of block 6407/6. The well will be drilled about six kilometers north of the Mikkel gas/condensate field.

Production license 312 was awarded on December 12, 2003 in APA 2003. This is the third well drilled in the license.

The permit is contingent upon the operator having secured all other permits and consents required by other authorities before the drilling starts.