Monday, 23 January 2012 at 15:41, Reuters, Stockholm
Lundin said production in 2011 was approximately 33,200 boepd. (REUTERS)
Swedish oil explorer and producer Lundin Petroleum on Monday forecast it would see rising output next year after saying 2011 figures would come in at the top end of its forecast.
The company, which last year discovered one of the biggest fields ever off the Norwegian Continental Shelf, gave a forecast for production in 2012 of between 32,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day and 38,000 boepd.
It said production in 2011 was approximately 33,200 boepd, the upper end of its previously given range of 31,000 to 34,000.
The mid-point of the 2012 forecast would represent an increase of 5 per cent on 2011.
"I am pleased that despite the weather-related delay to the Gaupe Field first oil date, we will again increase our production in 2012," CEO Ashley Heppenstall said in a statement.
Gaupe was expected to produce oil at the end of 2011, but production is not now expected until February or March.
Shares in Lundin were up 1.3 per cent at 150.90 crowns at 0823 GMT, outperforming a 0.2 per cent rise in the blue-chip Stockholm index.
Lundin shares doubled in value in 2011 thanks to its discovery of the Avaldsnes field off Norway which it has estimated contains 800 million to 1.8 billion barrels of reserves.
However, the share slipped back earlier this month when an appraisal well in the southern part of the field, now renamed Johan Sverdrup, showed less oil than expected.
Lundin will provide the next update on the size of the Johan Sverdrup field around the end of the first quarter. The field will not come on-stream for several years.
The company reports its full-year results on February 8.
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