The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) has granted a drilling permit to Engie E&P Norge for well 36/7-4 in offshore Norway.
Engie will use the Transocean Arctic drilling facility at position 61°24’59.72” north, 04°04’08.06” east to drill the well 36/7-4, 55km south-west of Florø and 10km north-west of the Gjøa field.
Prior to this, the facility will complete the drilling of wildcat well 31/7-1 A for Faroe Petroleum Norge in production licence 740.
As part of the drilling programme for well 36/7-4, Engie plans to drill a wildcat well in production licence 636, which was awarded on 3 February 2012.
The company operates the licence with a 30% interest. The other licensees are Idemitsu Petroleum (30%), Wellesley Petroleum (20%) and Tullow Oil Norge (20%). The area in this licence consists of a part of block 36/7.
Well 36/7-4 is the first one to be drilled within the licence area.
Before starting drilling, Engie needs to secure all permits and consents required by other authorities.
In a separate announcement, Engie announced that it has increased the gas production on Gjøa field in the North Sea by 17.5%.
Engie E&P Norge head of operations Hilde Ådland said: “Gjøa was originally designed to export 17 million standard cubic metres of gas per day (Msm³/d).
“That we are currently producing 20Msm³/d, 17.5% more than estimated, is a great achievement.”
Engie holds shares in 46 licences on the Norwegian Continental Shelf and is operator of the Gjøa field, as well as seven exploration licences.
Net production from Gjøa in 2015 was 12.6 million barrels of oil equivalent.
