Lundin appraising more prospects in North Sea

March 6 (UPI) -- After revising the reserve estimate for a producing field in the North Sea, a division of Lundin Petroleum said it was appraising the latest discovery.

The Norwegian subsidiary of the company said it started drilling an appraisal well in the Gohta discovery in the Edvard Grief field.

"Following the 2016 year-end reserves additions on Edvard Grieg in relation to a larger oil column being proven in the northwestern flank of the field, further resource potential has been identified in the southwestern flank of the field," the company explained.

The company said during the third quarter that Edvard Grieg production was 26 percent higher than during the previous term, adding it was confident enough to raise its full-year 2016 forecast for production by about 7 percent at the low end

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

For the year, Lundin said it expected to produce on average between 70,000 and 80,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day. The company counts Norwegian major Statoil as a minority partner and recently restructured itself to focus more strongly on offshore Norway.

Norway is a main supplier of oil and natural gas to the European market, apart from Russia. Nearly all of the offshore oil and gas reserves in Norway are slated for exports.