Statoil notes increased Northern Norway focus, small oil discovery

Statoil (OSE:STL, NYSE:STO) is intending to make good of the plans to establish a new operation in Northern. Activities in the region are due to increase considerably with Norne and Snøhvit fields, already in operation, Aasta Hansteen field decision coming soon and further activities on exploration in the new targets in the Barents and the north-eastern Norwegian Sea. The base will be in Harstad, Troms county.

On Friday Statoil (49.3%) and partners Petoro (33.6%) plus Total, ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips with small stakes could rejoice a small but potentially very economical discovery in the North Sea. Drilling in license PL053 n the Oseberg Area proved on oil column of 12 metres with estimated volume of 12-18 million barrels of recoverable oil equivalents. The discovery is a good candidate to be connected to Oseberg production facilities.

The discovery in prospect called Crimp was a secondary drilling target for the well with Crux high impact gas prospect being the first one. Crux prospect did not contain hydrocarbons. The hypothesis was projecting up to 250 mboe as a high risk play assuming a gas-filled structure underlying the Oseberg field, so that part of the news was obviously a disappointment.