Lundin Drills Duster in Barents Sea

Sweden's Lundin Petroleum has sunk a dry well in the Barents Sea, the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) said on November 19, in another setback for exploration in the region.

Lundin drilled the wildcat well at production licence (PL) 609, some 30 km east of the Johan Castberg oilfield and 12 km east of the Neiden oil and gas discovery. But it found only traces of petroleum and the well is classified as dry. Lundin has a 40% interest in PL 609, while Germany's Wiintershall Dea has 30% and Japan's Idemitsu 30%.

The West Bollsta semi-submersible rig used to complete the well is moving on to drill another wildcat at PL 533 B, also operated by Lundin. Another semi-submersible West Hercules also left for the Barents Sea earlier this month to drill a well at PL 960, controlled by Norway's Equinor.

The latest exploration failure comes after Equinor came up dry at a well 25 km south of the Castberg field in July. Earlier that month the UK's Spirit Energy also failed to find hydrocarbons at a Barents Sea well.