The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate has granted A/S Norske Shell a drilling permit for well 34/5-2 S, cf. Section 15 of the Resource Management Regulations. 

Well 34/5-2 S will be drilled from the Scarabeo 8 drilling facility.

The drilling programme for well 34/5-2S relates to the drilling of wildcat wells/appraisal wells in production licence 373 S in the North Sea.

A/S Norske Shell is the operator with an ownership interest of 45 per cent. The other licensees are Idemitsu Petroleum Norge (25 per cent), Wintershall Norge AS (20 per cent) and DEA Norge AS (10 per cent). The area in this licence consists of parts of blocks 34/2, 34/5, 34/6 and part of block 34/3 The well will be drilled about 20 km south of the Knarr field.

Production licence 373 S was awarded on 6 January 2006 in APA 2005 on the Norwegian shelf. This is the ninth well to be drilled in the licence.

The permit is conditional on the operator securing all other permits and consents required by other authorities before the drilling activity commences.