Norway's Petroleum Safety Authority has given DEA Norge consent for exploration drilling in Block 7321/4 in the Barents Sea.
The consent covers drilling of exploration well 7321/4-1 in production licence PL 721 in the Barents Sea. The purpose of the well is to investigate a prospect that the licensees have named 'Gr?spett'.
The geographical coordinates of the drilling site will be: 73° 44' 07.76" N 21° 08' 21.94" E. The location is 120 kms northeast of the Johan Castberg field, 93 kms southeast of Bj?rn?ya and 309 kms from the Norwegian mainland (Ing?ya in Finnmark). Water depth at the site is 497 metres.
Drilling is planned to begin in late August 2018. The activity is estimated to last at least 32 days.
Well 7321/4-1 is to be drilled by the Island Innovator mobile drilling facility. This is a Global Maritime GM4000 type semi-submersible drilling facility, and was a newbuild from the COSCO shipyard in China in 2012. It is owned by Island Drilling Company, operated by Odfjell Drilling, is Norwegian-flagged and classified by DNV GL. Island Innovator was issued with an Acknowledgement of Compliance (AoC) by the PSA in August 2013.
