"The bi-annual lease rounds in the US Gulf of Mexico are important arenas for StatoilHydro to maintain and refine our portfolio here", explains Øivind Reinertsen, heading up StatoilHydro's upstream activities in USA and Mexico.
Øivind Reinertsen
"The leases we acquired are in deepwater and predominantly in high quality Miocene sands, in which StatoilHydro is participating in several promising discoveries, including Tahiti, Heidelberg, Caesar/Tonga and Knotty Head", he adds.
StatoilHydro is one of the largest leaseholders in deepwater US Gulf of Mexico. In addition to production from Independent Hub and Front Runner, both Tahiti and Thunder Hawk are projects the company participates in, which both are scheduled to come on stream this year.
In 2009 StatoilHydro will also embark on an extensive drilling programme with two new rigs coming into the Gulf of Mexico.
Lease sale 208 is a part of the current schedule of the mineral management service (MMS) in New Orleans. A total of 56 companies participated in the sale.
StatoilHydro's winning bids are subject to review and final approval by the MMS which can take up to 90 days.