The remote Jan Mayen island look set to be the next big target for oil development after a host of oil majors snapped up seismic data for the site.
The volcanic island, 1000km west of Norway’s North Cape, has been surveyed by the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate for the last two years.
Now the area around the island, along with the southeastern part of the Barents Sea, has attracted the interest of fifteen oil companies, who have each spent around $2million on the latest survey data.
Chevron, Det Norske, Shell, Lundin, Statoil, BP and GDF Suez are among the majors to have acquired the 12million krone data package covering the region, the petroleum directorate confirmed today.
Tullow, Dong, ENi and BG Group have also bought data for the region, following approval by the Norwegian government to open up a region of the Barents Sea previously involved in a border dispute with Russia.
Geologists suspect the area around Jan Mayen, which has a population of just 18 military workers, may contain significant gas and oil deposits, while the Barents Sea region – equivalent to the size of Switzerland – could hold up to 1.9billion boe.
Norway is expected to start its next licencing round for oil and gas sites later this year.
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