Statoil Petroleum AS has received consent to carry out exploration drilling of well 7220/4-1 in production licence 532 in the Barents Sea using the West Hercules mobile drilling facility.
Water depth at the site is approx. 403 metres.
Drilling is planned to begin in November 2013, with a duration of 60 days, depending on whether a discovery is made.
West Hercules (above) is a 6th-generation semi-submersible drilling facility built in 2008 at Daewoo Shipyard, South Korea. The facility can operate at water depths between 100 and 3000 metres.
The operator for West Hercules is North Atlantic Drilling with operations offices at Dusavik in Stavanger. The rig is registered in Panama with Det Norske Veritas as the classification society.
West Hercules received Acknowledgement of Compliance (AoC) from the PSA on 21 December 2012.