Lundin commissions FEED for Luno

Offshore staff

STOCKHOLM, Sweden – Lundin Petroleum has contracted front-end engineering and design studies for its Luno field development in the Norwegian North Sea. These should lead to submission of a development plan later this year.

The company has studied options for a joint development with the nearby Draupne field, operated by Det norske oljeselskap. However, both parties opted instead for standalone solutions.

Luno, in license PL338, was discovered in 2007 and has since been appraised by two further wells. Reserves auditors Gaffney Cline & Associates estimate proven and probable (2P) reserves at 148 MMboe.

Last month, the Tellus exploration well in the same license was completed as an oil discovery, and appears to be a northern extension of Luno. The Tellus well is currently being sidetracked for appraisal purposes so that development here can be included as part of the overall scheme for Luno.

Two reservoir tests have been completed in the well, the first of which was the first successful full- scale basement test on the Norwegian shelf, Lundin claims. If the fractured basement can be produced commercially, resources from this interval could also be drawn in from the Luno South discovery and the surrounding area.

This year Lundin is participating in 10 exploration and appraisal wells this year offshore Norway – aside from Tellus, there has been another discovery on the Caterpillar structure in the North Sea, operated by Marathon.

Caterpillar will likely be developed with last year’s nearby 20 MMboe Bøyla (ex-Marihøne) discovery via the Alvheim FPSO. A plan of development will be submitted for Bøyla in 2011 with first oil expected in late 2013/early 2014.

Luno will soon begin appraisal of a much larger find from 2010, Avaldsnes, drilling two back-to-back wells in PL501. And Statoil will drill two wells in PL265 to appraise part of the Avaldsnes structure that may extend west into that license, named Aldous Major South and Aldous Major North.

This program should determine the structure’s size, which could range at the low end from 150 MMbbl (comparable to Luno) up to billion-barrel potential.

05/04/2011