The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) has granted Aker BP a drilling permit for three wells in the North Sea offshore Norway.

The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate confirmed on Tuesday that wells 25/2-23 S, A and B will be drilled from the Odfjell Drilling-owned Deepsea Nordkapp drilling rig.

The drilling programme for wells 25/2-23 S, A and B relates to the exploration drilling of a wildcat well and two appraisal wells in production licence 873. The area in this licence consists of parts of blocks 25/1, 25/2 and 30/11.

Aker BP is the operator of the licence with an ownership interest of 40 per cent and other licensees are Equinor (40 per cent) and Lotos Exploration and Production Norge (20 per cent).

Deepsea Nordkapp is contracted under the terms of the drilling agreement that Odfjell Drilling and Aker BP entered into in April 2018. The rig was originally awarded a two-year contract with two annual extension options.

In line with this, in December 2019, Aker BP decided to exercise its first one-year extension option, followed by the second one, which was exercised in March 2021.

An additional scope based option period has also been agreed upon, which – if exercised – will follow completion of the firm period and have a duration of up to 12 months.

It is worth reminding that Odfjell Drilling bought the Deepsea Nordkapp rig, former Stena Midmax, from Samsung Heavy in April 2018. This is an enhanced Moss Maritime CS-60 winterized and purposely built for harsh environment areas semi-submersible drilling rig.