Statoil to bid for Barents Sea licences

Norway

STAVANGER, December 3, 2015 – Statoil announced plans to resume exploration in the Barents Sea on Thursday, submitting bids for blocks on offer in Norway’s licensing rounds. The company has been divesting from high-risk and costly drilling areas with a mid-November exit from licences in Alaska’s Chukchi Sea.

Jez Averty, Statoil’s senior vice-president for exploration in Norway, said the company intends to begin drilling as early as 2017 despite scepticism that the fields would not be commercial.

Averty said the rounds on offer this round were especially promising as the company prepares to start drilling in the Arctic after a hiatus. The company announced that it had no plans to drill in the area in 2015 last January.

Statoil initiated a collaborative seismic project in the Barents Sea in April 2015, concentrating on the areas offered in this licensing round.

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