Lundin Petroleum plans to create a new company in Norway to handle its Norwegian and UK interests. Viking Oil and Gas ASA will be based in Oslo, with Torstein Sanness, managing director of Lundin's Norwegian shelf operations, appointed CEO of the new company.
Offshore staff
STOCKHOLM, Sweden --Lundin Petroleum plans to create a new company in Norway to handle its Norwegian and UK interests. Viking Oil and Gas ASA will be based in Oslo, with Torstein Sanness, managing director of Lundin's Norwegian shelf operations, appointed CEO of the new company.
Lundin claims the new organization should be more attractive to investors, offering a balanced portfolio of producing, development and exploration assets in the North Sea, with further interests in the Barents Sea. Viking would use cash flow from these assets to finance its own growth.
As of Jan. 1, the new company's net proven and probable reserves off Norway and the UK totalled 96.6 MMboe, with forecast production this year of over 20,000boe/d. It also had 99.4 MMboe of net contingent resources and 974 MMboe of net unrisked prospective resources. According to Lundin, these figures put it among the largest tier of Norwegian independents after Statoil/Hydro.
