Lundin Norway’s exploration well 16/4-9 S on the Luno II North prospect in the Norwegian North Sea has discovered oil, a news release said.

The well is located on the southwestern flank of the Utsira High, about 15 km south of the Edvard Grieg Field and 4 km northwest of the Luno II discovery well, 16/4-6 S.

The well, drilled to a total depth of 2,305 m by the semisubmersible drilling rig Bredford Dolphin, encountered a gross oil column of 23 m in Jurassic/Triassic conglomeratic sandstones. Pressure data indicate that the petroleum system in the Luno II North discovery is different than that seen in the Luno II discovery, the release said. Extensive data acquisition and sampling was carried out in the reservoir including conventional coring and fluid sampling.

One production test (DST) was performed in the oil zone, producing at a rate of 1,000 barrels of oil per day through a 32/64-in. choke, Lundin said in the release.

The gross contingent resource range for the Luno II North discovery, representing the southern part of the prospect, is estimated to be 12 to 26 million barrels of oil equivalents.

While analysis of the economic viability of the various development concepts is ongoing one possible development solution could be a combined Luno II and Luno II North subsea tieback to the Edvard Grieg Field, Lundin said. Both the Luno II North and the Luno II discoveries are located wholly in PL359 with a fully aligned ownership between PL359 and Edvard Grieg’s PL338. The Luno II discovery is estimated to contain a gross contingent resource range of between 27 and 71 million barrels of oil equivalents.

The well will be permanently plugged and abandoned, the release said.

Lundin Norway AS is the operator of PL359 with a 50% working interest. The partners are OMV (Norge) AS with 20%, Statoil Petroleum ASA with 15% and Wintershall Norge AS with 15% working interests.

Offshore