Local no Two of the Nordic State's biggest energy companies have announced major oil and gas finds, it was reported on Tuesday.
Statoil announced their seventh gas finding off the coast of Tanzania. The size of the reserve is equal to around 216 million barrels of oil.
Meanwhile Swedish oil explorers Lundin Petroleum, who are focused on Norway, found huge amounts of gas and oil in the Alta prospect in the Barents Sea. The oil finding is estimated to be around 85 to 310 million barrels of unprocessed oil. Statoil's finding in the so-called "Block Two" area was in partnership with ExxonMobil. It consists of almost 1.2 cubic foot of gas, which equals almost 216 million barrels of oil equivalents.
Nick Maden, director of Statoil for the western hemisphere, said in a press release: “Our rate of success in Tanzania has been high and opening a new field will be very important in order to continue our search effort.”
Statoil is an operator on "Block Two" on behalf of Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC) and has a share of 65 percent of the territory. ExxonMobil is the owner of the remaining 35 percent.
Including the value of this new finding, Statoil and ExxonMobil has now made energy discoveries in "Block Two" equivalent to almost 3.8 billion barrels of oil.
Lundin Petroleum's Alta finding was made not far off in scale or value of last year's Gohta finding.
CEO Ashley Lundin said to NTB: “This finding is another positive step to get enough resources in the area of Loppa High in the Barents Sea in order to develop infrastructure for oil production. The finding is significant.”
If the estimates are correct, then the finding could be reckoned one of the largest on the Norwegian seabed since just after 2000, reported Dagens Næringsliv.
These new wells are 20 kilometres north-east of the Gohta finding and 160 kilometres from the Norwegian coastline.
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NTB/The Local (news@thelocal.no)
Statoil freezes oil sands project in Canada
Norwegian oil company Statoil announced the postponement of an oil sands project in Canada due to rising costs and limited pipeline transport capacity.
The Corner project, located in the province of Alberta in western Canada, is being postponed for a minimum of three years, the company said in a statement late Thursday.
The production capacity of the project is 40,000 barrels per day and its delay does not affect the neighbouring Leismer project, which can produce up to 20,000 barrels per day, according to Statoil.
"Costs for labour and materials have continued to rise in recent years and are working against the economics of new projects," Statoil Canada country manager Ståle Tungesvik said.
The decision highlighted the difficulties experienced by oil companies to transport fossil fuels from the most remote areas of Alberta to the markets due to limited pipeline capacities.
In June, the Canadian government greenlighted the construction of a new pipeline to the Pacific coast, which should be operational by 2017.
The construction of another pipeline, the controversial Keystone XL, which is expected to connect west Canada with the Gulf of Mexico, faces fierce opposition from environmentalists and part of the US political establishment.