Lundin Drills in North Sea, Statoil Announces Workforce Cut

Lundin Petroleum announced that its wholly owned subsidiary Lundin Norway AS commenced drilling of exploration well 16/4-9 S on the Luno II North prospect. 

The news came on Wednesday, a few hours after Statoil’s note announcing that it could reduce workforce by 1,100 - 1,5000 permanent employees by the end of next year. 

‘The Luno II discovery is located approximately 15 km south of the Edvard Grieg field in the North Sea sector of the Norwegian Continental Shelf’ Lundin wrote on its website, adding that it estimates the Luno II North prospect to contain gross unrisked prospective resources of 24 million barrels of oil equivalents (MMboe).

Lundin Norway is the operator of PL359 with a 50% working interest. OMV (Norge) AS, Wintershall Norge AS, Statoil Petroleum AS are the other partners with 20%, 15%, and 15% working interest respectively.

As anticipated, on Tuesday, Norway’s Statoil announced that the national industry has to increase efficiency. 

“We regret the need for further reductions, but the improvements are necessary to strengthen Statoil’s competitiveness and secure our future value creation," Anders Opedal, executive vice president and chief operating officer in Statoil, commented in a separate press release.