Equinor has received a drilling permit from the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) for the wells 35/10-7 S and A located in the North Sea.
Situated in production licence 630, the wildcat well and an appraisal well are planned to be drilled using the West Hercules drilling facility.
The wells will be drilled about 16km north-west of the Troll field and 12km west of the Fram field.
Equinor operates the production licence, which comprises part of block 35/10, with a 50% stake while Wellesley Petroleum owns the remaining 50% interest.
NDP said that the drilling permit is subject to Equinor securing all permits and consents from other authorities prior to starting drilling at the wells.
Recently, the NPD has approved a drilling permit for Vår Energi’s well 7122/6-3 S located in production licence 901 in the North Sea.
The well 7122/6-3 S is planned to be drilled using the Scarabeo 8 drilling facility. It will be drilled about 30km north-east of the Goliat field and about 13km south of the discovery well, 7122/6-1.
Vår Energi operates the production licence 901 with 50%. The other licence partners are Longboat Energi (20%), Concedo (20%) and Equinor Energy (10%).
Last month, Equinor started production from the third phase of the Troll field in the Norwegian North Sea.
The Troll phase 3 project, which is expected to extend the production lifetime of Troll A platform beyond 2050, involved the development of eight wells.
It also involved the construction of a new pipeline and umbilical connecting the templates to the Troll A platform, in addition to a new gas processing module on the platform.
