OMV discovered up to164 million barrels of recoverable oil in the Wisting Central exploration well 7324/8-1, within the Hoop-Maud Basin in the Barents Sea.
The company found between 63 million and 164 million barrels of oil in the relatively shallow parts of the Barents Sea, in Norway's northernmost discovery, around 310 km (190 miles) north of the country's coast and near Statoil's Johan Castberg find, it said in a statement on Friday.
The well has encountered 50-60m of net light oil pay in relatively shallow Middle to Lower Jurassic reservoir rocks. Following evaluation of the results, further delineation of the discovery and exploration drilling in the license will be required.
The well was drilled by the Leiv Eiriksson semi submersible rig and is located about 170km northeast of the Skrugard/Johan Castberg discovery well and 310 km north of Hammerfest. The well was drilled to a total depth of about 905m in a water depth of 373m.
OMV said its license, including the new find and potential future discoveries in adjacent prospects, could hold up to 500 Mmb/o, which would make it the second-biggest find to date in the region.
Statoil itself is also drilling more in the region, planning to explore its Apollo and Atlantis prospects in 2014 and potentially adding more resources to its Barents find.
Norway's Barents Sea is set to become a key exploration area after the government awarded 20 Arctic licenses in June and said its next licensing round would focus on the eastern parts of its section, which has been off limits to oil firms until now.
The Wisting Central discovery is operated by OMV with a 25% stake. Partner’s include Japan's Idemitsu with 20%, Norwegian state-holding firm Petoro 20%, London-listed Tullow Oil 20% and Statoil 15%.
“This is a major frontier light oil discovery for Norway, Tullow Oil and our coventurers,” said Angus McCoss, exploration director, Tullow Oil.
“The Wisting Central wildcat well has opened the Hoop-Maud Basin by proving a new shallow play in the region. This discovery also demonstrates the effectiveness of leading edge exploration techniques, pioneered by Tullow’s Norwegian exploration team, that combine shallow seismic and electromagnetic survey data in the search for oil. We look forward to pursuing the exciting exploration and appraisal follow up arising from this breakthrough oil discovery.”
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