Statoil is planning to drill two wells on its massive Johan Sverdrup discovery in the Norwegian North Sea.
It is to drill an exploration well on the Geitungen prospect and an appraisal well on the Espeværhogda prospect, both within the Johan Sverdrup area, using the Ocean Vanguard mobile drilling rig, following permission from Norway’s Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA) granted today.
Johan Sverdrup has been described as one of the five largest discoveries ever made on the Norwegian Continental Shelf, the largest discovery since the mid 1980s and the largest exploration find in the world in 2011.
It was originally thought to be two fields. It is estimated to contain 1.7-3.3billion barrels of oil gross contingent resources.
The PSA said Statoil’s plan was to start the drilling operations as soon as Ocean Vanguard has concluded drilling of well 34/7-35S, a wildcat well in production licence 552.
Ocean Vanguard is operated by Diamond Offshore, with an operations office in Stavanger and technical and operational support from the company’s headquarters in Aberdeen.