The Norwegian Petroleum Safety Authority has granted the Statoil-contracted semi-submersible Transocean Spitsbergen the approval to begin drilling at production licence 393 in the Barents Sea located approximately 42 kilometers north of the northern tip of Norway in 294 meters of water.
The PSA notes that drilling is planned to begin in September 2014 with a duration of approximately 30 days, depending on whether a discovery is made.
The Spitsbergen and her sister rig Transocean Barents are of the Aker H-6e design and among the world’s largest and most robust drilling rigs ever built – and the site of recent protests by Greenpeace.
The Bahamian-flagged rig was built at the Aker Stord yard in 2009 and classified by DNVGL.