The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate has granted Lundin Norway AS a drilling permit for well 16/4-8, cf. Section 8 of the Resource Management Regulations.
Well 16/4-8 S will be drilled from the Bredford Dolphin drilling facility in the central part of the North Sea.
The drilling programme for well 16/4-8 S relates to the drilling of an appraisal well in production licence 359. Lundin is the operator with a 40 per cent ownership interest. The other licensees are Premier Oil Norge AS with 30 per cent, OMV (Norge) AS and Statoil Petroleum AS with 15 per cent each.
The area in this licence consists of the south-western part of block 16/1 and the northern half of block 16/4. The well will be drilled 3.9 km southwest of well 16/4-6 S and 5 km northwest of well 16/5-5 in production licence 410.
Production licence 359 was awarded on 6 January 2006 (APA 2005). This is the third well to be drilled within the licence area, while three wells have been drilled previously in the western part of the licence area.
The permit is contingent upon the operator securing all other permits and consents required by other authorities prior to commencing the drilling activity.