May 13, 2013 - The partners of Production License 330 in the Norwegian North Sea have been granted a drilling permit for well 6608/2-1 S. Issued by the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD), the permit clears the way for the Transocean Winner (mid-water semisub) to drill an exploration well on the Sverdrup prospect. The Sverdrup wildcat will be the first well drilled in the license. RWE-Dea serves as the operator with a 40% stake. Marathon Oil and Lundin Petroleum each hold 30% interest in the license. Sverdrup is a structural trap with presumed Upper/Middle Jurassic reservoir.

Apr 30, 2013 - Rocksource ASA, operator of PL506S, announced a dry well at the Storbarden prospect in the North Sea. Exploration well 26/5-1 was drilled by the Borgland Dolphin (mid-water semisub). Both the main and secondary targets were encountered as expected but proved to be void of hydrocarbons. The well will be plugged and abandoned upon completion of data acquisition and analysis. Rocksource's partners in PL506S include Petoro (20%), Petrolia (30%) and Valiant (25%).