Lundin Petroleum Norway said today its resource estimates on the southern part of the large Avaldsnes discovery would most likely be cut following an appraisal well.
The firm said the well, 5.2miles south of the Avaldsnes discovery well, was still being evaluated but that it would “mostly likely reduce current resource estimates for this area”.
Its comments came as Norway’s Petroleum Directorate said in a review of the industry that the joint Aldous/Avaldsnes discovery, operated by Statoil, was confirmed to be among the five largest oil discoveries on the Norwegian shelf of all time.
It said its preliminary estimates of the discovery were about 1.8billion barrels of oil equivalents.
However, it emphasised that the figure was uncertain and that six or seven new appraisal wells were planned during 2012.
Lundin is operator on Avaldsnes and Statoil is operator on Aldous. Each own equity in the other’s blocks on Aldous/Avaldsnes.