Statoil has confirmed that the recent Aldous and Avaldsnes oil discoveries in the North Sea are connected and may represent an oil structure of between 500 million and 1.2 billion barrels of recoverable oil equivalent.
If the upper part of the interval strikes pay dirt, the discovery will be one of the ten largest oil finds ever on the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS). Statoil has a 40% stake both in licence PL 265, where Aldous was discovered, and in PL 501, where the Avaldsnes discovery was made.
“Aldous/Avaldsnes is a giant oil discovery, and according to our estimates the combined discovery may make the top 10 list of NCS oil discoveries. Norway has not seen a similar oil discovery since the mid-eighties,” says Tim Dodson, Statoil’s executive vice president for Exploration.
This is the third ‘high-impact discovery’ (a total of more than 250 million barrels of oil equivalent, or 100 million net barrels of oil equivalent) for Statoil as an operator in 2011. In April of this year the 250 million barrel Skrugard oil discovery was made in the Barents Sea, and the 150-300 million barrel Peregrino South oil field was discovered offshore Brazil.
“The discoveries are a result of Statoil’s exploration strategy of prioritising high-impact opportunities, while focusing on our established core areas,” adds Tim Dodson.