Lundin Scraps Standalone Project in Barents Sea

Sweden’s Lundin Petroleum has dropped plans for the standalone development of the Alta and Gohta oil and gas discoveries, it said on January 13.

A subsea tie-back to Johan Castberg or another existing project in the area is now considered the most viable option for exploiting the 2013-2014 finds, Lundin said in a statement. The decision comes after Lundin downgraded Alta’s contingent resources after evaluating data from a 3D seismic survey and well tests in 2018.

Lundin added it was drilling wells at several large prospects in the Barents Sea’ s Loppa High area, “which if successful could change the dynamics of commercial options for this area.”

The company ended 2019 with an estimated 693.3mn barrels of oil equivalent in proven and probable reserves, up from 675.9mn boe a year earlier. The end-2018 figure does not include the 69.6mn boe of reserves relating to a 2.6% stake in the Johan Sverdrup field which Lundin sold to Equinor in August.

“This has been the sixth consecutive year in which we have more than replaced our produced barrels, whilst in the same period production has increased by four times; which is a testament to the quality of the asset base and organic growth model,” Lundin chief operating offer Nick Walker said.

Reserves were added last year as a result of three projects in the Edvard Grieg area in the central North Sea moving from appraisal to development.

“I am confident we will see further reserves and resources growth as we continue to mature the portfolio and kick off another busy year with the drill bit in 2020,” Walker said.