Norwegian Petroleum Directorate announces drilling permit for well 25/9-4 in production licence 628

Norwegian Petroleum Directorate announces drilling permit for well 25/9-4 in production licence 628

STAVANGER -- The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate has granted Statoil Petroleum a drilling permit for well 25/9-4, cf. Section 8 of the Resource Management Regulations.

Well 25/9-4 will be drilled from the Ocean Vanguard drilling facility at position 59°25’24.4” north and 2°47’15.0” east.

The drilling programme for well 25/9-4 relates to drilling of a wildcat well in production licence 628. Statoil Petroleum is the operator with a 50 % ownership interest. The other licensees are Petoro with 20 %, Repsol Exploration Norge med 20 % and Petrolia Norway med 10 %.

The area in this licence comprises parts of blocks 25/6, 25/9, 26/4 and 26/7 in the central part of the North Sea. Production licence 628 was awarded on 3 February 2012 (APA 2011). This is the first exploration well to be drilled in the licence, and the second within the licence area.

Wildcat well 26/4-1 was drilled with BP as operator in 1987.

The permit is contingent upon the operator securing all other permits and consents required by other authorities prior to commencing the drilling activities.