North Sea Operator Kicks Off Drilling Campaign

Independent Oil and Gas plc (IOG) (AIM: IOG.L) reported Monday that it has spud the first of five planned development wells in Phase 1 of its Core Project in the U.K. Southern North Sea: Elgood, 48/22c-H1.

The Noble Hans Deul jack-up rig reached the Elgood field location on April 4 after mobilizing from the Cromarty Firth, and drilling began at 5:30 p.m. on April 9, IOG noted in a written statement emailed to Rigzone.

“We are very pleased to have kicked off the Phase 1 drilling campaign, another key milestone for the company as we continue to progress towards commercialization of our Core Project,” remarked Andrew Hockey, IOG’s CEO. “The drilling campaign has been planned meticulously by the IOG drilling, subsurface, subsea, and HSE teams since early last year, in collaboration with our main drilling contractors Noble Corporation, Petrofac, and Schlumberger and our partner CalEnergy.”

IOG expects drilling and completion at Elgood to take approximately three months. The company stated the rig will subsequently move to the Blythe field in the third quarter of this year.

“We have a very clear collective focus on ensuring safe and efficient performance leading successfully to first gas in Q3 2021 at the Blythe Hub before continuing into 2022 at Southwark,” Hockney said.

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