Det Norske to Carry Out Exploration of PL 497

Det norske Oljeselskap ASA (Det norske) has received consent to carry out exploration drilling of well 7/11-13 with the Mærsk Guardian mobile drilling facility.

Exploration well 7/11-13 is located in the southern part of the North Sea and is part of production licence PL 497, where Det norske is the operator. The well is a wildcat well and, if a discovery is made, it may be relevant to drill a sidetrack well.

The well will be located approx. 29 km northwest of the Ula field centre and has the following geographical coordinates:

57° 14′ 26.71″ N

02° 26′ 34.75″ E

Drilling is estimated to last 80 days, and up to 135 days if a sidetrack well is drilled. The earliest start-up is the beginning of September.

Mærsk Guardian (photo) is a jack-up drilling facility built at the Hitach Zosen shipyard in Japan in 1986. It is operated by Maersk Drilling Norge AS.

The facility received an Acknowledgement of Compliance (AoC) in November 2002, which was renewed in July 2007.

[mappress]
Press Release, August 30, 2012; Image: ptil