The Barents Sea could hide huge amounts of oil

Barents SeaBarents Sea.Photo: wikimedia.commons

There could be several billion barrels of oil in the Barents Sea.In  particular, the area at  the border with Russia is viewed with great excitement.

– If all the projections are correct and all the uncertainties turns out to be positive,we can get access to an amount of oil equivalent to billions of barrels,  Kristian Kråkenes  says to NRK news.

He is head of Kufpec, which is the international operations of Kuwait’s state oil company Kuwait Petroleum Corporation KPC.

Norway’s biggest field, Statfjord, has produced five billion barrels of oil since its inception in the late 1970s. The technology behind the latest seismic surveys is a major reason for the huge  expectations.

– Earlier you’ve mostly had a two-dimensional image created by lines crisscrossing. Now however, we have 3D data gives us a much better picture, he explains.

– We see several areas that are reasonably shallow, which are large in size and may contain reservoirs. This includes the area from the Norwegian-Russian delimitation line southeast of the Barents Sea,  Kråkenes says.

Statoil’s exploration manager Jez Averty, says a major discovery in the north naturally will be important for them.

– But Barents Sea is even more important to Norway as a nation, because this is the area with the greatest potential for a future discovery of large volume,  Avery says.

 

Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today