The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) has granted Wellesley Petroleum a drilling permit for an exploration well in the North Sea.

The well 25/1-13 is located in production license 871 where Wellesley is the operator with an ownership interest of 40 percent and other licensees are Aker BP, Equinor, and Lotos with 20 percent each.

The area in this license consists of parts of blocks 25/1, 25/2, 25/4 and 25/6. The well will be drilled about six kilometers southeast of the shutdown Frigg field in the central part of the North Sea.

Production licence 871 was awarded in February 2017 (APA 2016). This is the first exploration well to be drilled within this particular license, but three wildcat wells have previously been drilled within the license area.

The NPD said that the drilling program for the well relates to drilling of wildcat wells in the license.

The company has already obtained consent from the Petroleum Safety Authority to drill the well using the Transocean Arctic drilling rig after concluding the drilling of appraisal wells 31/7-3 S and 31/7-3 A in the northern part of the North Sea.

According to the PSA, the drilling operations on the well, named Balcom, are scheduled to begin on January 22, 2019. The drilling will last 30 days if the well is dry and up to 52 days if hydrocarbons are discovered.