The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) has issued Lundin Norway AS a drilling permit for well 16/2-20 A, cf. Section 8 of the Resource Management Regulations.

Well 16/2-20 A will be drilled from the Island Innovator drilling facility at position 58°56’30.84’’ north and 02°25’18.62’’ east in production licence 501.

The drilling programme for well 16/2-20 A relates to the drilling of a wildcat well in production licence 501. Lundin is the operator with a 40 per cent ownership interest. 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 comprises parts of blocks 16/2, 3, 5 and 6. The well will be drilled about 0.5 kilometres to the southwest of 16/2-20 S and around 3.2 kilometres north of well 16/2-9 S on Johan Sverdrup in the central part of the North Sea.

Production licence 501 was awarded on 23 January 2009 (APA 2008). This is the 19th exploration well to be drilled within the area of the licence.

The permit is contingent upon the operator securing all other permits and consents required by other authorities before the drilling activity commences.