Resource estimates for the Barents Sea doubled
The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate’s map over the Norwegian shelf with the new area marked with yellow.
New estimates from the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate show that the undiscovered oil and gas resources in the Barents Sea are twice as large as previously estimated.
New estimates from the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate show that the undiscovered oil and gas resources in the Barents Sea are twice as large as previously estimated.
The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate has recently surveyed the eastern part of the Barents Sea North, an area of approximately 170,000 km2 , 10,000 km2 larger than the Norwegian part of the North Sea. A significant part of this area is located within the formerly contested are (‘the grey zone’), and most of the new information has been acquired following the Maritime Delimitation Agreement with Russia, which entered into force in June 2011.
The relative share of the undiscovered resources in the Barents Sea are thus adjusted from 50 to nearly 65 percent of the total amount of undiscovered resources on the Norwegian shelf. The resources in the new area are estimated at 1.4 billion standard cubic meters of oil equivalents. That equals the size of 14 Johan Castberg fields, and more than five times the Snow White field, according to a press statement from the Petroleum Directorate.
- Of course, there is some insecurity around this number. It may prove lower, or it may be higher, says Petroleum Directorate Director General Bente Nyland, and adds that about 60 percent of the resources appear to be in liquid form, whereas the remainder is gas.
The expected total resources are about equal in amount for the Barents Sea North and the Barents Sea South areas, while the northern part is only half the size of the southern part. – It means that the surveyed area in the north holds twice the resource potential per square kilometer as does the Barents Sea South area, Nyland argues.
The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate has worked on surveying the Norwegian sea areas in the eastern part of the Barents Sea North since 2012, on a commission from Stortinget, the Norwegian Parliament. The area has not been opened for petroleum activities.
The updated map of the northern Barents Sea shows an exciting landscape consisting of basins, platforms and ridges. From a geological point of view, the ridges are more interesting, according to Nyland. Good examples of such ridges are Utsirahøgda (the Utsira Ridge) in the North Sea and Lopphøgda in the Barents Sea South. The Johan Sverdrup field is located on the Utsira Ridge, and in Lopphøgda oil has so far been located in the Alta and Gohta prospects.
- In the northern part of the Barents Sea we consider Storbankhøgda, Sentralbankhøgda and the Kong Karl platform the most promising areas, the Director General says in closing.Les artikkelen på norsk.