Signs of oil have been found by Statoil in the northern part of its Siri licence on the Danish continental shelf.
However, the size of this find remains very uncertain, reports Alf Frugaard, production manager for Siri. So does the question of whether reserves are large enough to make the discovery commercially interesting.
Two exploration wells have been drilled over the past few months in the northern area of the licence from the Dutch rig Noble George Sauvageau.
One proved dry, while the other was originally intended to serve as an injection well for the main structure. However, Statoil resolved to drill an exploration well as a sidetrack north of the main field.
After this operation proved the presence of oil, test production was initiated roughly six weeks ago to appraise the reserves.
"This evaluation is still under way, and we'll be considering later whether to do anything further with the discovery," says Mr Frugaard.
The Siri platform began producing oil on 1 March, three years after the field had been found, and is currently flowing about 47,000 barrels per day. Peak output is 50,000 daily barrels.