Lundin progressing nine new offshore Norway projects

Lundin Energy has issued an overview on its current exploration and appraisal activities across the Norwegian continental shelf.

Results from two recent appraisal wells on the Iving discovery in the central Norwegian North Sea, close to the Balder and Ringhorne fields, were below expectations. The partners are nevertheless assessing the feasibility of a commercial development.

So far this year Lundin has participated in four drilled wells, one of which led to a small Triassic oil discovery (up to 9 MMboe) at Segment D on the Utsira High, near the Solveig field. A development could follow in parallel with a future development phase at Solveig.

The company expects to drill four more wells this year targeting collectively around 200 MMboe of net unrisked prospective resources.

Last year, Norway’s government introduced temporary tax incentives for projects with plans for development and operation (PDOs) submitted before the end of 2022. Lundin has taken steps to accelerate activities for nine potential projects that could benefit from this opportunity.

The first of these, Aker BP’s KEG tieback in the Alvheim area, has been sanctioned with the PDO submitted. Solveig Phase 2 project, incorporating the Segment D discovery and the Rolvsnes full field project, will be de-risked based on production experience from the current Solveig Phase 1 development and the Rolvsnes extended well test (both tiebacks to the Edvard Grieg complex).

Another project could be Lille Prinsen in the North Sera, where the semisubmersible Deepsea Stavanger is currently drilling an appraisal well. Development studies for the Alvheim area project Frosk are also progressing, with project sanction planned for later in the current quarter.

In the Barents Sea, Equinor/OMV are undertaking development studies for the Wisting oilfield with concept selection planned for late 2021. As for Lundin’s Alta discovery, also in the southern Barents, the favored option at present is a subsea tieback to the Johan Castberg field center, although the timing means this will not benefit from the temporary tax regime.

At Edvard Grieg the jackup Valaris Viking continues an infill drilling program that started in January. The first infill well came onstream in June, fitted with a ‘Fishbones’ completion, which has helped deliver well productivity around 10 times greater than originally expected.

The two branches of the second infill well have also been drilled, the first again with a ‘Fishbones’ completion. This well should come online during 4Q.

A power cable has been installed on Edvard Grieg and laid on the seabed at Johan Sverdrup, awaiting arrival of the latter’s Phase 2 processing platform in 2022.

In May 2021, the semisub West Bollsta wrapped up completion activities on the existing Rolvsnes well. Final commissioning and testing is ongoing, with first oil expected in August.

At the Aker BP-operated Ivar Aasen field, the water production rate has continued to increase, accelerating the oil production decline. Two infill wells have come onstream, both performing below expectations.

Read the latest issue of the OGV Energy magazine HERE.