Planning the First Deep-Water Well Offshore Norway

BP Norge was awarded acreage in the Norwegian 15th Licensing Round, with water depths up to 1420 metres. 3D seismic studies revealed a number of significant structures in these licenses and the decision was taken to evaluate the most interesting of these at the earliest opportunity. As a consequence, the Well Engineering team proceeded to plan the first exploration well, which was to be drilled in 1275 metres of water in the Nyk High area off Northern Norway. The team faced two significant challenges. The rig market for fourth generation semi-submersible drilling units, capable of drilling in these water depths, was such that there were no Norwegian approved vessels available. Hence, they had to plan for the importation of an appropriate rig and introduce a new drilling contractor to the Norwegian sector. Additionally, the water depth was indicative of a dynamically positioned drilling operation and the Norwegian Authorities needed to be convinced that this unit, and the associated drilling programme, were appropriate to the task at hand. Consequently, there were a number of key processes that were central to the success of this exercise. These included detailed project planning, wide-ranging risk assessments and accessing the knowledge and skills of groups inside BP Exploration with experience of these operations. Visible compliance with our internal technical and HSE systems and Policies was a central feature of this project, and compliance with the Norwegian requirements. As the first well of this nature in the Norwegian sector, these processes were all key to final approval to proceed with the drilling activity. This paper describes how these aims were achieved, detailing how the Well Engineering Team managed the project, the risk assessment procedures that were implemented, the approach to Regulatory compliance and the verification processes that were put in place. The detailed engineering studies and the performance of the first well will be reported separately in later papers.