Lundin Petroleum has started drilling the first appraisal well 16/3-4 at the Avaldsnes discovery, which is situated in PL501, in the North Sea area of the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS).
The key purpose of the 16/3-4 well is to define the Avaldsnes discovery found in 2010 having evaluated resources between 100 and 400 million barrels of oil that is recoverable in PL501. The target is to verify the late Jurassic sand occurrence around 5 km southeast of the Avaldsnes well 16/2-6.
The company has planned to drill a total depth of about 2,000 m under mean sea level. It will use Bredford Dolphin, the semi-submersible drilling rig, to drill the well. It is predicted that it will take around 45 days to drill. Once the drilling of first appraisal well 16/3-4 is complete, the company will use the same drilling rig to spud the second appraisal well, 16/2-7.
Lundin Petroleum has a 40% interest and is an operator of PL501 . Statoil Petroleum has 40% and Mærsk Oil Norway has 20% interest in PL501.
Source: http://www.lundin-petroleum.com/