Aker BP chief executive Karl Johnny Hersvik is said to have put a time-frame of a matter of weeks on a decision whether to pursue extra Arctic wells.
The firm is reportedly considering drilling two new prospects, Hufsa and Hurri, in the PL533 license in the Barents Sea.
Lundin, the operator of the license, announced in February a discovery of 35-100 million barrels of oil equivalents (boe) in the Filicudi prospect.
Hersvik said: “Most importantly the Filicudi discovery reduced the risk of drilling the other prospects… We are clearly more optimistic now than we were before the Filicudi discovery”
Hufsa is estimated to hold 285 million boe and Hurri 218 million boe.
The Leiv Eiriksson rig is currently employed by Lundin in the Barents Sea and would likely be the drilling platform of choice for the job.
Lundin and Aker BP have each 35 percent in the PL533 license, and DEA has 30 percent