Lundin Petroleum AB reports that its wholly owned subsidiary Lundin Norway AS has been awarded five exploration licences in the 23rd Norwegian Licensing Round. All the licences are located in the southern Barents Sea with three of the licences being operated by Lundin Norway.

PL609C and PL851 are both located on the Loppa High, east and northeast of the Lundin Norway’s operated Alta discovery. PL609C is operated by Lundin Norway and is located immediately to the east of the Alta discovery. This licence has been secured as protection acreage in the event that the Alta play fairway is shown to extend east and northeast wards.

PL851 is operated by Lundin Norway and is located immediately to the north of PL609C. This acreage is mapped as containing exploration potential on the eastern flank of the Loppa High.

PL857 is located in the newly opened south eastern Barents Sea area close to the Russian border and around 150 km from the northern coast of Norway. The PL857 acreage is mapped containing a large dome-like structure with several stacked prospects at Jurassic and Triassic levels with in excess of a billion barrels of oil equivalents in total resource potential. The PL857 licence has 1 committed exploration well.

PL859 is located north of PL857 and around 420 km from the northern coast of Norway. The PL859 acreage is mapped as containing two dome-like structures with stacked prospects at Jurassic and Triassic levels with each prospect having the potential to contain several billion barrels of oil equivalents in resources. The PL859 licence has 2 committed firm exploration wells.

Kristin Faerovik, Managing Director of Lundin Norway comments, “I am very pleased that the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy has awarded us what we regard as high impact exploration acreage in the southern Barents Sea. Through this 23rd licensing round we have further consolidated our leading acreage position in the Loppa High where we hold the Alta and Gohta oil discoveries. I am particularly excited about the billion barrel prospectivity on the acreage awarded in the southeastern Barents Sea. This acreage is for the first time being made available for oil and gas exploration and with the new 3D seismic data we have available means that these prospects are drill-ready.”

The five licence awards:

• License / Lundin Norway licence interest
• PL609C * / 40%
• PL851* / 40%
• PL853* / 60%
• PL857 / 20%
• PL859 / 15%

*operator Lundin Norway

Tags: Lundin Norway, Lundin Petroleum