Norway: Lundin Petroleum Announces Spud of Appraisal Well on Avaldsnes Discovery

Lundin Petroleum AB (Lundin Petroleum) announces that drilling of the first appraisal well 16/3-4 on the Avaldsnes discovery located in PL501, in the North Sea sector of the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS), has commenced.

The main objective of the well 16/3-4 is to delineate the Avaldsnes discovery made in 2010 with estimated recoverable resources between 100- 400 million barrels of oil in PL501. The target is to confirm the presence of late Jurassic sand approximately 5 km southeast of the Avaldsnes discovery well 16/2-6.

The planned total depth is approximately 2,000 meters below mean sea level and the well will be drilled using the semi-submersible drilling rig Bredford Dolphin. Drilling is expected to take approximately 45 days. The second appraisal well, 16/2-7, will spud directly following the completion of well 16/3-4 using the same rig.

Lundin Petroleum is the operator of PL501 with 40 percent interest. Partners are Statoil Petroleum ASA with 40 percent and Mærsk Oil Norway AS with 20 percent.

Lundin Petroleum is a Swedish independent oil and gas exploration and production company with a well balanced portfolio of world-class assets in Europe, South East Asia, Russia and Africa. The Company is listed at the NASDAQ OMX, Stockholm (ticker “LUPE”) and at the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) (ticker “LUP”). Lundin Petroleum has proven and probable reserves of 187 million barrels of oil equivalent (MMboe).

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Source:Lundin Petroleum , May 16, 2011; Image:Ptil