The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate has granted Lundin Norway AS a drilling permit for well 16/3-8 S, cf. Section 8 of the Resource Management Regulations.

Well 16/3-8 S will be drilled from the Bredford Dolphin drilling facility at position 58°48’23.35’’ north and 02°40’27.67’’ east in production licence 501 in the central part of the North Sea.

The drilling programme for well 16/3-8 S relates to drilling of an appraisal well in production licence 501. Lundin is the operator with an ownership interest of 40 per cent. The other licensees are Statoil Petroleum AS with 40 per cent and Maersk Oil Norway AS with 20 per cent.

The area in this licence consists of parts of blocks 16/2, 3, 5 and 6. The well was drilled about 3.9 kilometres southeast of the 16/2-6 discovery well on Johan Sverdrup.

Production licence 501 was awarded on 23 January 2009 (APA 2008). This was the 20th well drilled within the licence area.

The permit is contingent upon the operator securing all other permits and consents required by other authorities prior to commencing drilling activities.