Lundin's Alta lifts hopes for Norway's southwestern Barents

Prospects open for a development project in the southwestern part of the Norwegian Barents Sea

Appraisal drilling at Lundin's Alta oil and gas discovery has raised prospects for a development project in the southwestern part of the Norwegian Barents Sea. The Swedish company, which also has the nearby Gohta discovery, has had talks with Statoil, operator of the Johan Castberg development project further north, over cost-saving initiatives and the oil minister has said he is willing to provide state support for an oil pipeline from the area. Lundin said in June that two wells had successfully appraised the western part of Alta, which it had initially estimated to hold a recoverable 88m-315m barrels of oil and 5bn-17bn cubic metres (cm) of gas. The firm will update the estimate after dri