Maersk Oil to drill new deep N.Sea exploration well
Maersk Oil, a unit of Danish shipping and oil group A.P. Moller-Maersk, will drill a high pressure exploration well in the Maja licence area in the Danish sector of the North Sea, the company said on Wednesday, Reuters reports.
"The well will target a high pressure, high temperature (HPHT) prospect in the licence and will be drilled within the next two years after substantial preparatory work is completed," Maersk Oil said in a statement.
Maersk Oil, which operates oil and gas production of about 625,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day offshore Denmark, UK and Qatar, as well as onshore Kazakhstan, said HPHT wells in the Danish North Sea typically cost around $100 million.
Maersk Oil holds a 42.62 percent stake in the licence with Denmark's DONG Energy having 27.32 percent, Norwegian energy firm Noreco 16.39 percent and Danoil 13.66 percent, Maersk Oil said.
Maja lies close to the Maersk Oil-operated Harald gas field and 40 kilometres (24.8 miles) north of the licences operated by Danish Underground Consortium (DUC), Maersk said.
The well will be drilled in water depths of 50 metres (164 feet) and to a total depth of around 5,000 metres, Maersk said.
"We believe there is more oil and gas to be found in the Danish North Sea both in the maturely developed shallower levels and also in the less mature deeper geologic horizons," Esbern Hoch, head of Maersk's exploration in Denmark, Greenland and the Middle East North Africa region, said in the statement.
The Danish Energy Agency (DEA) last week extended the Maja licence by two years and also granted a two-year extension for Maersk Oil's Gita licence, lying next to Maja, the company said.
"Maersk Oil plans to integrate new data over the licence and perform further technical evaluations before deciding on further steps for this area," it said.