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Friday, August 19, 2011

Giant oil strike discovered in North Sea

The future looks promising to ‘Statoil’, a Norwegian Energy Company which discovered a large oil field in the North Sea. This is the largest oil field discovered in the North Sea in the last 30 years.

It is estimated that the company holds about 500 million to 1.2 billion barrels of oil. The position of this newly discovered oil field is between the two oil fields ‘Aldous’ and ‘Avaldsnes’ belonging to Statoil.

Some Analysts argue that this discovery is a proof of the fact that the Norwegian Continental Shelf is still a lucrative option for oil companies. However sceptics are doubtful of this view. They are more of the view that this discovery is not going to halt the increasing tend of energy companies turning away from the North Sea.

The benefits of this discovery will go to the small companies invested in the North Sea. However the larger companies will continue to look elsewhere.

Currently, Norway boats of being the seventh largest oil exporter in the world. The oil sector in Norway has continued to boom following the discovery of oil fields in the 80’s. Last year the Norwegian shelf alone was responsible for producing 2.1 million barrels of oil.

The Norwegian Petroleum Agency states that most of the oil rigs and drilling fields have exhausted themselves and are fast approaching the end of their lifetime. Around 6% fall in oil production is estimated this year.

The recent oil spills are not helping matters for the energy companies invested in the North Sea.

Only time will tell how this discovery will affect production of oil in the North Sea.

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