The Norwegian subsidiary of Spanish energy firm Repsol said that it plans to begin the plugging operation this month and expects to complete it in nearly 208 days.
Rowan Stavanger, which is operated by offshore contract driller Rowan Drilling Norway, is a jack-up facility of the KFELS N class.
The wells, which are being planned to be plugged by the vessel, are located in the southern part of the Norwegian North Sea. They are situated about 230km of Stavanger in the south-west direction, and about 220km south-west of Rogaland County’s Utsira.
Repsol Norge with a stake of 65% is the operator of the production license 038 containing the Varg field, which it had determined to be no longer profitable. Other stakeholders in the Varg oil field are Petoro with a stake of 30% and Aker BP which holds 5%.
Production from the Varg oil field commenced in 1998 after it was developed using the Varg A wellhead facility, subsea structures along with the Petrojarl Varg mobile production facility (FPSO).
In August 2016, the partners closed the Varg oil field after it had produced close to 100 million barrels of oil during its operations for 18 years. The Norwegian offshore oil field which was discovered in 1984 is contained in water depth of 84m.
Repsol had moved into the Varg oil field with the $8.3bn acquisition of Canadian oil company Talisman Energy in 2014.
