Statoil’s soon to be initiated ambitious Barents Sea drilling programme will be the start of the gradual road further up into Arctic regions, says exploration manager for the Norwegian Continental Shelf Gro Gunleiksrud Haatvedt.
“Major parts of the areas in the Arctic have never been explored, but there have been activities in parts of this zone. It gives us a good knowledge basis. We have reason to believe, therefore, that about 20 percent of the world’s undiscovered resources are in the Arctic,” she said during her speech at the Offshore Strategy Conference in Stavanger, Tuesday.
She was referring at the time to a study conducted by the US Geological Survey.
“It shows that the geology gives cause for further optimism. This means hydrocarbon resources in this area equate to the size of 170 Johan Sverdrup fields, based on NPD estimates of between 1.3 billion barrels of oil equivalent and 2.5 billion barrels,” said Gro Gunleiksrud Haatvedt.
“The world needs the Arctic”
“It’s not just the geology that gives reason for optimism. The resources that are present may represent important energy ones. We expect a 30 percent increase in energy demand over the next 30 years. The world will also need the resources we assume are in the Arctic.”
Gro Gunleiksrud Haatvedt does state, however, there are no plans to commence drilling at the North Pole tomorrow.
She emphasised that there is talk of a gradual development forward in line with developments seen on the Norwegian Continental Shelf in the past 40 years up to the present.
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