Lundin in active southern Barents program

Lundin Petroleum is on the heels of beginning an active exploration drilling program in the southern Barents Sea with Ocean Rig’s Leiv Eiriksson semisubmersible. The program, which will begin with a multi-billion bbl prospect, includes spudding a total of four wells before the year is over that will give Lundin access to 500 billion boe of prospective resources.

The Leiv Eiriksson semisubmersible will drill three of Lundin's operated wells this year. Image from Ocean Rig.

Lundin’s southern Barents campaign will begin this month with Statoil’s Korpfjell well (7435/12-1) in PL 859. The Norwegian giant gained a drilling permit earlier this week from the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) to drill Korpfjell with the Songa Enabler drilling facility.

According to Lundin, Korpfjell has the potential to hold multi-billion bbl of resources. The well is targeting one segment of shallower horizons within the multi-billion bbl gross prospective resource potential of the Korpfjell prospect.

“As you know from a size, this is about four times the size of Johan Sverdrup, but of course we are in a more frontier area and we have to understand,” Alex Schneiter, Lundin Petroleum president and CEO said in the company’s Q2 2017 earnings call. “You are going to see further drilling in Korpfjell next year, and probably also in Signalhorn, which is another large structure.”

“Overall really exciting trends that we are going to see unfold in the coming months,” said Schneiter.

Results from Korpfjell are expected in Q3 2017.

Later this month, Lundin plans to spud its Børselv (7220/6-3) prospect. Børselv, in PL 609, is on the Loppa High and on-trend north of the Alta and Neiden discoveries.

According to Lundin, Børselv is a sizable prospect close to 250,000 boe.

Lundin will round out 2017 with the drilling of “two large prospects on trend with our Filicudi discovery,” the Hufsa and Hurri prospects.

The Hufsa wildcat (7219/12-2) in PL 533, is expected to be spudded in October. Hurri (7219/12-2 also in PL 533 will be spudded before the end of the year.

“Significant additional prospectivity is mapped along trend with the Filicudi discovery in PL533 in the southern Barents Sea and the follow-on Hufsa prospect will be drilled during Q4 2017,” Schneiter said. “Additionally, the partnership in PL533 is considering drilling the Hurri prospect which would spud towards the end of 2017, which is along trend from the Kayak oil discovery in PL532 that was recently announced by Statoil.”

In February 2017, Lundin Petroleum hit at its Filicudi prospect in PL533 in the southern Barents Sea.

The well, drilled about 40km southwest of the Johan Castberg discovery in PL532, encountered a 129m hydrocarbon column, with 63m of oil and 66m of gas, in high quality Jurassic and Triassic sandstone reservoirs. A sidetrack well was drilled that also confirmed the reservoir and hydrocarbon column.

Lundin has estimated that the Filicudi discovery contains between 35 and 100 MMboe of gross resources.

Read more:

Lundin Filicudi discovery has upside

Barents Sea resource boost

Current News

New York Not Moving Forward With Three Offshore Wind Farms

New York Not Moving Forward Wi

DNV Awards Certificates for Fortescue’s Dual-fueled Ammonia-powered Vessel

DNV Awards Certificates for Fo

Energy Storage on O&G Platforms - A Safety Boost, too?

Energy Storage on O&G Platform

Türkiye Aims to Drill for Oil Off Somali Coast Next Year

Türkiye Aims to Drill for Oil

Subscribe for OE Digital E‑News

Offshore Engineer Magazine