Wintershall has received consent to drill exploration well 35/12-5 in the northern part of the North Sea. Wintershall is the operator for production licence 378 in block 35/12 in the northern North Sea. Exploration well 35/12-5 is to be drilled in a prospect called Crossbill.
The drilling site is around 10 km south-east of the Skarfjell well 35/9-7 and 12 km SSW of the Gjøa platform. Water depth at the site is 353 metres.
The position during drilling will be:
- 61° 13′ 01.6″ N
- 03° 49′ 39.2″ E
Drilling is scheduled to begin in May 2015 and estimated to last 57 days. A possible sidetrack will take a further 113 days.
Drilling is to be carried out using Transocean Arctic, a semi-submersible drilling facility owned and operated by Transocean. It was built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in Japan in 1987, and substantially upgraded in 2004. It was issued with an Acknowledgement of Compliance (AoC) by the PSA in July 2004.