Statoil announced on Friday it had found new oil and gas reserves in the Barents Sea, but that the exploration work north-west of Hammerfest had not revealed the volumes expected. The Drivis prospect site beside the Johan Castberg field could return between 42 and 54 million barrels of oil, along with gas reserves of between two to nine million barrels of oil equivalent.
“We are of course happy to have made an oil find in Drivis, but the exploration program as a whole has not delivered on volume expectations,” Irene Rummelhoff, Statoil’s head of explorations on the Norwegian continental shelf told news bureau NTB. “Of the five wells that were drilled, only two have led to oil discoveries.”
“We will now work closely with our license partners to analyze the results and what they mean for the Johan Castberg development project,” said Erik Strand Tellefsen, head of field development in northern Norway.
Statoil has the operations license for the field and owns half of it. Energy company Eni Norge owns 30 percent, while wholly state-owned company Petoro owns 20 percent.
newsinenglish.no staff
