The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) has granted Neptune Energy a drilling permit for well 35/6-4 A in production license 929 in the North Sea, offshore Norway.
Neptune Energy will use the Deepsea Yantai semi-submersible drilling rig to drill the wildcat well. The offshore drilling rig is owned by CIMC and operated by Odfjell Drilling.
According to the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate, which granted its permission on Tuesday, the drilling is expected to start in November.
Neptune Energy is the operator of the offshore block with a 40% stake, with partners being Wintershall Dea (20%), Pandion Energy (20%), Aker BP (10%), and DNO (10%)
The PL 929 license is where Neptune Energy made the Ofelia discovery (PL 929) in August 2022, and is located approximately 14 kilometers north of the Neptune-operated Gjøa field.
Preliminary estimates of recoverable volume are in the range of 2.5-6.2 million standard cubic meters (MSm3) or 16-39 million barrels of oil equivalents (mmboe).
In early October, Neptune started drilling on the Ofelia appraisal well aiming to appraise and fully evaluate the hydrocarbon discovery in the Ofelia Agat formation. A secondary target is to evaluate an upside of gas charged reservoir in the shallower Kyrre Formation.
