Hydrocarbons have been found in an appraisal well on the western flank of the Statoil-operated Veslefrikk field in the North Sea.
Well 30/3-8 was drilled from the Veslefrikk A platform down to 6,208 metres. Hydrocarbons were discovered in several Middle Jurassic sandstone intervals.
"It might be relevant to apply for production testing to gather more information about the find," says Gro Aksnes, head of petroleum technology for Veslefrikk.
Ms Aksnes says that the prospect is very split up, consisting of a number of displaced fault blocks.
The partners in licence 052 are Statoil (18 per cent), the state's direct financial interest (37 per cent), TotalFinaElf (18 per cent), RWE-DEA (13.5 per cent), Petro-Canada (9 per cent) and Svenska Petroleum Exploration (4.5 per cent).