Lundin Petroleum has been hit by a double blow, forcing it to cut its 2015 production guidance because of the delay of the installation of the Edvard Grieg (SEN, 32/9) topsides and problems on its Brynhild (32/1) Field, both offshore Norway.

The cut to 32 Mboe/d from guidance of 41 Mboe/d to 51 Mboe/d came after Lundin said production from the Brynhild Field, which came onstream in December 2014, has been “very disappointing.”

The production efficiency of the Haewene Brim FPSO vessel has been below forecast due to a number of issues particularly relating to topside efficiency and water-handling constraints.

Brynhild produced just over 3 Mbbl/d of oil during the first half of the year, which was more than 60% below forecast.

Production on the field was halted in mid-January, less than a month after it came onstream, due to operational issues on Bluewater’s Haewene Brim FPSO vessel in the U.K. sector where it is tied back.

A leak was detected in a gas injection flexible flowline and a connection point between one of the mooring chains and the riser buoy was found to be damaged. Production resumed following repairs.

Lundin CEO Ashley Heppenstall said, “We have seen improvements in production over recent weeks, but we have revised our production efficiency forecasts to what we believe are more realistic levels going forward, which coupled with the first-half production will have a negative impact on our 2015 production guidance.”

Although Lundin said it has made good progress with the Edvard Grieg development project, production startup there has been delayed from the beginning to the end of the fourth quarter after the Thialf heavy-lift vessel was two months late in arriving at the field.

The topside installation has been successfully completed and the offshore hookup and commissioning is underway.

The Safe Boreas flotel is bridge-linked to the platform and more than 400 people are on board and involved with offshore operations.

In better news for the company, Lundin said it will use the results from its recently completed and successful 16/1-23 S appraisal well on Edvard Grieg to optimise the drainage strategy and determine the best possible location for production wells in the area.

The well, which also was testing incremental resource potential in this part of the field, was located in PL338 and was drilled about 2.4 km southeast of the Edvard Grieg platform.

The well encountered a 66-m gross oil column in pebbly sandstone with medium to good reservoir quality.

Extensive data acquisition and sampling is ongoing with the initial data results appearing very promising with regard to additional in-place volumes.

This is the tenth exploration/appraisal well in PL338 of which seven have been drilled in the Edvard Grieg Field. The licence was awarded on Dec. 17, 2004 (APA 2004).

The well was drilled to a vertical depth of 2,043 m below the sea surface and terminated in granite basement. The well will be permanently plugged and abandoned. Water depth at the site is 108 m.

The well was drilled by the jackup rig Rowan Viking, which will return to the Edvard Grieg platform to continue drilling of production and injection wells.

Lundin Norway is the operator of PL338 with 50%. The partners are OMV Norge with 20%, Statoil 15% and Wintershall 15%.

Offshore