Statoil has found oil in the PL532 licence in the Barents Sea, with a recoverable oil volume estimate of between 200 and 300 million barrels.

In an announcement, Statoil said well 7220/7-1 on the Havis prospect of the licence had a proved 48 metre gas column and a 128 metre oil column.

Havis lies about 7 kilometres southwest of the Skrugard discovery, made in April of last year.

While the two finds are in the same production licence, the Havis find forms an independent structure, Statoil said, with no communication between the two discoveries.

The find puts the provisional volume estimate for the licence area to between 400 million and 600 million barrels of recoverable oil equivalents.

In an announcement, Statoil chief executive Helge Lund said the find was the company’s second high impact discovery in the Barents Sea in nine months.

“The discovery’s volume and reservoir properties make it Skrugard’s twin. Skrugard and Havis open up a new petroleum province in the North," he said.

Statoil is operator of production licence PL532 with a 50% stake, while Eni and Petoro hold 30% and 20% stakes respectively in the licence.

The partnership will drill another appraisal well in the Skrugard discovery and assess further upside potential in the licence, Statoil said, with well 7220/7-1 now to be plugged and abandoned after extensive data collection and sampling.

Well 7220/7-1 is the second well in production licence 532, and was drilled to a total vertical depth of 2200 metres below sea level by drilling rig Aker Barents.

That rig will proceed to drill appraisal well 7220/5-1 on discovery 7220/8-1 in the same production licence, according to the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate.

Source: Upstream Online