New drilling begins in Barents Sea

Oct. 9 (UPI) -- New drilling has started in a prospect in the Norwegian waters of the Barents Sea near one of the region's larger discoveries, Lundin Petroleum said.

Lundin's subsidiary in Norway said Monday it started drilling an exploration in the Hufsa prospect in the southern waters of the Barents Sea. The well is located just south of the Filicudi and Johan Castberg proven discoveries in Norwegian waters.

"The Hufsa prospect is estimated to contain gross unrisked prospective resources of 285 million barrels of oil equivalent," the company said in a statement.

Johan Castberg was one of the more significant finds in the region in recent years. The field has estimated proven reserves of between 400 million and 600 million barrels of oil, and the Norwegian government said the most recent revision for Barents Sea reserves is roughly equivalent to 14 Johan Castberg fields.

Lundin, which has headquarters in Sweden and an operational focus in Norway, posted revenue for the three months ending June 30 of $464.6 million, more than twice that of the same period last year. The company struggled through the market downturn that began in 2015 and Norwegian energy giant Statoil spent $538 million last year to acquire an 11.9 percent stake in Lundin. This year, the company spun off its non-Norwegian production assets into a company called International Petroleum Corp.

Production this year for Lundin should average between 80 million and 85 million barrels of oil equivalent per day.

Apart from Russia, Norway is the lead oil and natural gas exporter to the European market, designating nearly all of its offshore production for European Union demand.