Lundin cleared for more drilling offshore Norway

Jan. 30 (UPI) -- The Norwegian government signed off on plans for appraisals of one of the larger oil fields in its territorial waters, Edvard Grieg

The Petroleum Safety Authority of Norway said it signed off on Lundin Petroleum's plans to drill an appraisal well on the oil field situated in the Norwegian waters of the North Sea.

Lundin in mid-January reported that its reserve estimates as of December had increased considerably in part because of its stake in Edvard Grieg.

"The reserves upgrade on Edvard Grieg is driven by drilling results to date which indicate more oil-in-place in the western flank of the field than originally foreseen," the company said in a statement.

Lundin gained some leverage Norwegian waters last year when regional major Statoil spent $538 million to acquire an 11.9 percent stake in the company.

In a preliminary statement on plans for 2017, Lundin said nearly all of its $1.1 billion in development spending for the year was targeting reserves in Norway and most of that was targeting operations tied to the larger Johan Sverdrup field and Edvard Grieg.

Edvard Grieg production was 26 percent higher for Lundin than during the second quarter and the company said it was confident enough to raise its full-year forecast for production by about 7 percent at the low end. Lundin is scheduled to release its year-end report on Wednesday.

The appraisal well in Edvard Grieg is in shallow waters, will start March 1 and last 44 days, the safety authority said. Oil was first pulled out of Edvard Grieg in November 2015.