First Swedish drilling in Barents Sea
Swedish-based Lundin Petroleum is confident of success in the Skalle project, the company’s first exploration drilling in the Barents Sea.
The company this week announced that exploration drilling has started at the Skalle prospect in the Barents Sea. The planned total depth is 2,650 meters below mean seal level and the well will be drilled using the semi-submersible drilling rig Transocean Leader. Drilling is expected to take approximately 60 days, the company informs in a press release.
The field, which is located near the Snøhvit field, is the first of Lundin’s five operated licenses in the Barents Sea. In addition, the company has one partner operated license in the region.
Lundin believes the Skalle prospect might contain prospective resources of as much as 250 million barrels of oil equivalents.
Read also: Swedes to search for oil and gas in the Barents Sea
Lundin is also one of the companies which were awarded a new exploration license interest in the 21st Norwegian Licensing Round announced early this year. The company will be the operator of project PL609 with a 40 percent interest. The partnership comprises RWE Dea Norge AS and Idemitsu Petroleum Norge AS, each with 30 percent interest. The project is located immediately east of the Skrugard prospect where Statoil recently made a significant discovery.
