Lundin starts long-term drilling, testing program at Alta in the Barents Sea

Offshore staff

STOCKHOLM, Sweden – The semisubmersible Leiv Eiriksson has started a drilling/testing program for Lundin Petroleum on the Alta oil discovery in the Norwegian Barents Sea.

Following completion of appraisal well 7220/11-5, it will be used for an extended well test.

Alta was discovered in 2014 in license PL609 in the southern Barents Sea, 160 km (99.4 mi) from northern Norway.

Lundin has drilled three successful appraisal wells to date on the structure, and is contemplating a joint development with the smallerGohta discovery in adjacent PL492.

Combined resources for the two fields are estimated at 115-390 MMboe.

The rig will drill a 700-m (2,296-ft) long horizontal well in the oil zone, designed to improve the lateral geological understanding of the Permian-Triassic karstified and fractured carbonate reservoirs.

The goals are to prove sustainable production rates and reduce uncertainty around the recovery mechanism in this reservoir, allowing Lundin to progress development studies.

Testing should last around two months and production will head via a flexible flowline to a tanker. At the end of the test, oil and water produced to the tanker will be delivered to the Mongstad oil terminal in western Norway.

Further appraisal drilling may follow, depending on the results.

04/11/2018