Safety Regulator Clears Wintershall Dea's Transocean Rig For Drilling
(MENAFN- EIN Presswire) LONDON, UK, February 6, 2024 /EINPresswire / -- The Norwegian offshore safety regulator, which rebranded from the petroleum Safety Authority Norway to the Norwegian Ocean industry Authority (Havtil) at the beginning of January 2024, has greenlit the drilling of four wells in the Norwegian Sea by Wintershall Dea Norge, a subsidiary of major German oil and gas company Wintershall Dea. The drilling will be carried out by Transocean Norge, a semi-submersible rig owned by Transocean, in the Maria field. There are three production wells, and a water injector well is also set to be drilled.
The Maria field, which was first discovered in 2010, is located at a depth of 300 metres below sea level, 25 kilometres to the east of the Kristin field in the Norwegian Sea. The plan for development and operation (PDO) at the field, which falls within the Haltenbanken area, was approved in 2015. Production on the field commenced in 2017, with a subsea tie-back using two templates, five producers and two water injectors. It is the first field brought all the way from discovery to production by Wintershall.
The Transocean Norge is a sixth-generation Moss Maritime CS60 semi-submersible rig, and was built at the Jurong Shipyard in Singapore. It has a capacity of 150 people and a maximum drilling depth of 40,000 feet. A 17-well contract was awarded to the semi-submersible in September 2022, though a single-well extension covering the partnership with Wintershall Dea was also recently added.
Under the original contract, which provides for day rates in the $350,000–430,000 range, the oil and gas companies Wintershall Dea and OMV would enter into an exclusive partnership on the use of the Transocean rig to drill all firm and additional potential wells between 2023 and 2027.
Transocean Norge has made its owner the first company to receive the Abate (Power+) notion. The status was created to reflect best industry greenhouse gas abatement practices for offshore units such as semi-subs.
At present, Wintershall Dea is in the process of offloading all of its non-Russian oil and gas assets to Harbour Energy. The latter hopes that, in combination with a significant European carbon capture and storage portfolio, it will emerge among the world's largest and most geographically diverse independent oil and gas companies.
The share and cash deal, which is reportedly worth $11.2 billion, will grant Harbour Energy new producing and development rights in Europe (Norway, Germany, Denmark), North Africa (Algeria, Libya, Egypt) and LatAm (Mexico, Argentina), along with new exploration rights.
German group BASF owns 72.7% of Wintershall Dea with remainder is held by Russian investors Mikhail Fridman, Petr Aven and German Khan.
Shamir Atif
DI PR
20 7454 5111
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