DNO.OL: Great News!!
Italy's Eni makes major oil discovery in Norwegian waters
01-05-2006, 14h15
OSLO (AFP)
ENI headquarters in Milan. Italian energy group Eni has discovered major oil and gas deposits off the northern tip of Norway in a previously unexploited area of the Barents Sea, Norway's oil directorate said.
(AFP/File)
Italian energy group Eni has discovered major oil and gas deposits off the northern tip of Norway in a previously unexploited area of the Barents Sea, Norway's oil directorate said.
"The discovery may be very important for future exploration in adjoining areas of the Barents Sea," the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate said on Thursday, adding that the find had been made in the Hammerfest basin in Norwegian waters.
Director of resources at the petroleum directorate, Bente Nyland, told Norwegian radio station NRK that the "the discovery is so large that the development of the field is commercially viable".
NRK said that the deposit, which was known to exist and was called Goliath, contained 100 million barrels of oil, worth 35 billion Norwegian kroner (4.4 billion euros, 5.3 billion dollars) at today's oil price.
These figures were not confirmed by Nyland.
ENI Norge, the Norwegian unit of Eni, owns 65 percent of the license for the area, while Norwegian energy groups Statoil and DNO partners have 35 percent.
Faced with the exhaustion of resources in the North Sea, oil and gas companies are increasing their exploration activities in the Barents Sea area, where large reserves are believed to exist.
However, oil companies face opposition from environmental groups that are keen to protect the fragile environment and important fishing waters of the area.
Norway is the third-biggest exporter of oil in the world after Saudi Arabia and Russia. |
