Sweden’s Lundin Petroleum said on Monday its Norwegian Luno II field contained a slightly smaller than expected 25million to 120million barrels of oil equivalent (MMboe), pushing the Swedish exploration firm’s shares lower.
The discovery was drilled some 9 miles from Lundin’s Edvard Grieg field, in the same geological formation where the giant Johan Sverdrup oil field was discovered two years ago.
Lundin said the Luno find was probably in two parts and contains gross contingent resources of 25-120 MMboe for the south part of the find. The northern segment has gross prospective resources of 10-40 MMboe.
“In addition there are prospective resources outside the two mentioned areas,” Lundin said.
Lundin Petroleum has a 40-percent stake in the discovery. The other partners are Statoil, with 30 percent, and Premier Oil, with 40 percent.
Analyst Teodor Sveen Nilsen at Swedbank in Oslo said the discovery was smaller than anticipated.
“The lower than expect resources may increase uncertainty for a standalone development,” he said in a note.
Lundin shares were also weighed down by a proposal from Norway, the world’s seventh-biggest oil exporter, to raise taxes for the vast oil and gas sector from 2014, and had fallen 2.5 percent at 151.60 crowns at 0714 GMT.
The company’s shares have roughly doubled since the discovery of Johan Sverdrup in late 2011. The field, Norway’s biggest discovery in decades, is estimated to hold between 1.7 and 3.3 billion barrels of oil.
Lundin and other major Statoil partner are working to narrow the range of the forecast and are expected to produce a new forecast later this year. It is due to report its first-quarter results on Tuesday.