Lundin Petroleum has cut its resource estimate for the Alta oil discovery in the Norwegian Arctic, and no longer sees Alta and the nearby Gohta find as commercially viable for a joint field development, the Swedish company said on Monday.
The company, as well as Norwegian authorities, had seen the two discoveries as key to opening a new area of oil production in the Barents Sea in the Arctic, where only a few successful discoveries have so far been made.
The estimated size of the Alta find was cut based on high-resolution seismic data as well as data and analysis from a well drilled for extended testing in 2018, Lundin said.
Instead the two finds could in the future be tied in as additional resources to another Barents Sea field, Equinor's Johan Castberg, or to another potential discovery in the region, Lundin said.
"Lundin Petroleum is drilling several large prospects in the Loppa High area in 2020, which if successful could change the dynamic of commercial options for this area," the company added.
In 2019, Lundin's reserve replacement rate stood at 150%, the sixth consecutive year of adding more resources to its portfolio than it produced, the company separately said.
(Reporting by Terje Solsvik, editing by Jan Harvey and Gwladys Fouche)