Norway has doubled its estimates for undiscovered oil and gas resources in the Barents Sea.
The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) recently mapped the eastern part of the northern Barents Sea, part of which had been subject to a dispute.
Most of the new information was collected after a demarcation line agreement with Russia came into force in 2011.
The resources in the new area are estimated at 1.4 billion standard cubic metres of oil equivalents.
NPD director general Bente Nyland said: “This figure is naturally associated with some uncertainty. It could turn out to be lower or it could be much higher.”
Nyland added that about 60% of the resources are likely liquids, and the rest is gas.
NPD also said it was expecting a new record of exploration wells to be drilled in the Barents Sea this year.
Fifteen wells are slated for drilling, two more than in the record year 2014.
“This is a significant increase, and shows a very positive development in the Barents Sea,” Ms Nyland said at the Barents Sea Conference in Hammerfest today.
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