Lundin hits gas in southern Barents Sea

Lundin Petroleum on Tuesday said its unit Lundin Norway hit gas at the Neiden exploration well 7220/6-2R.

The company informed in a statement that the well is located in PL609 approximately 60 km northeast of the Alta discovery on the Loppa High in the southern Barents Sea.

The well encountered a gross 31 meters hydrocarbon column, with 21 meters of oil and 10 meters gas in the Permian target, where the company was looking to prove oil in Triassic sandstone and Permian carbonate reservoirs.

This raises the total gross resource estimate for the Neiden discovery is between 25 and 60 million barrels of oil equivalents.

The semisubmersible drilling rig Leiv Eiriksson will now move to the Filicudi prospect in PL533 to the northwest of the Alta discovery and south of the Statoil operated Johan Castberg discovery.

The Filicudi prospect is expected to contain Jurassic sandstone reservoir analogous to the Johan Castberg discovery. It is estimated to contain gross unrisked prospective resources of 258 MMboe.

Lundin Norway is the operator of both PL609 and PL533 and holds a 40 percent and 35 percent working interest in these respective licenses.