The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate has granted Wintershall Norge a drilling permit for well 35/11-20 A, in the North Sea offshore Norway.

The well 35/11-20 A will be drilled from the Borgland Dolphin drilling rig, after completing the drilling of wildcat well 16/5-6 for Tullow Oil Norge in production licence 776.

Recently, Dolphin Drilling, the operator of the rig, reportedly decided for a round of layoffs related to the Borgland Dolphin whose contract is expiring in the fourth quarter of 2016. The rig is currently under the drilling contract with Rig Management Norway, a consortium of four oil companies that include Wintershall, DEA, Tullow Oil and Suncor Energy.

The drilling program for well 35/11-20 A relates to the drilling of a wildcat well in production licence 248 F. Wintershall Norge is the operator with an ownership interest of 40 per cent. The other licensees are Origo Exploration Norway (20 per cent) and Petoro (40 per cent). The area in this licence consists of a part of block 35/11.

The well will be drilled about 100 kilometres southwest of Florø and about 20 kilometres northwest of the Fram field.

Production licence 248 F was carved out of production licence 248 on December 10, 2015.

Production licence 248 was awarded on June 4, 1999 (North Sea Awards 1999). This is the second well to be drilled within the licence area.