Lundin 'Very Pleased' with Barents Sea Well
Lundin has successfully completed drilling the Alta-3 appraisal well off the far north of Norway, in the southern Barents Sea in PL609.
The operator Lundin Petroleum said the well was drilled 4 km south of the original discovery well; a gas production test produced a maximum of 21mn ft3/d through a choke. No oil production test was planned.
Lundin CEO Alex Schneiter said: “We are very pleased with the latest results which indicate excellent reservoir characteristics at the re-entry well and away from the well bore. Further appraisal over the Alta discovery will be required during 2017 to fully delineate this large structure.”
DEA Norge boss Hans-Hermann Andreae added: “We are on the right way to get an extensive overview of the reservoir.” Lundin holds 40% in PL609, with Russia-backed Germany-based DEA 30% and Japan’s Idemitsu also 30%.
Map of the southern Barents Sea, showing PL609 (Map credit: DEA)
NPD said that Lundin’s estimate after drilling the original discovery well was between 88 and 315mn barrels of recoverable oil and between 5 and 17bn m³ of recoverable gas. Lundin said the Alta discovery is estimated to hold gross contingent resources of between 125 and 400 mn barrels of oil equivalent.
NPD said that Alta-3 is a deepening of the fifth well in PL 609, a licence awarded in the 21st round in 2011. The well was drilled by the Leiv Eiriksson drilling facility, which will now proceed to drill wildcat well 7220/6-2 R, also on PL609.
Mark Smedley