An oil discovery has been made by Statoil in its Linerle prospect north-east of the Norne field in the Norwegian Sea.
Knut Chr Grindstad, exploration manager for the Halten/Nordland cluster in Harstad, says it is too early to say anything about the volume or type of oil in the deposit.
"We've previously discovered oil in the nearby Falk structure, and Linerle underpins our strategy to realise a collective development of these parts," says Mr Grindstad. But the Falk oil has a higher density than average, and preliminary analyses indicate that the oil in Linerle is also heavier. An assessment will now be made to see whether a profitable development is feasible. "And there could be more oil in this sequence of finds in the Norne area," adds Mr Grindstad.
It was recently resolved to submit a plan for development and operation of Svale and Stær, two other oil discoveries near Norne. There will however still be available capacity on the Norne production ship after this development.
The West Navigator drill ship began exploratory drilling on 30 April, and this was completed on 23 May.
Linerle is located in block 6608/11 in production licence 128 (the Norne licence). Statoil is operator, with Eni, Hydro, Petoro and Shell/Enterprise as partners.