Norwegian Petroleum Resources With Focus On Challenges And Opportunities In the Barents Sea Available to Purchase

Exploration for hydrocarbons offshore Norway started in the North Sea 30 years ago and moved to areas further north (The Barents Sea and the Norwegian Sea) in 1980. A total of 480 wildcat wells have been drilled and 176 discoveries made. This gives a very high success ratio which is a direct consequence of the prospectivity of Norwegian offshore areas and efficient exploration strategies applied over time. Discovered resources amount to approximately 7.2 billion Sm³ oil equivalents, including an improved oil recovery potential of 500 million Sm³ Roughly 55% of this is oil. The majority of the fields and discoveries and most of the resources are located in the mature North Sea Basin. Significant resources are however also discovered in the Norwegian Sea and the Barents Sea (Fig. 2). 39 fields are in production or decided to be developed while 3 fields are closed down. Most of the remaining discoveries (134) are smaller in size and approximately 2/3 of the resources are gas. According to a recent study carried out by the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate the expected undiscovered Norwegian Petroleum Resources are assessed to be on the order of 3,5 billion Sm³ o.e. with a level of uncertainty ranging from 2 to 6 billion Sm³ o.e. 40% of the undiscovered petroleum resources are expected to be found as oil. From the turn of the century the oil production is however expected to gradually decline. The drop in oil production from existing fields based on present production forecasts will be significant. Improved oil recovery projects and new developments of existing discoveries and future discoveries is however supposed to limit the decline in Norwegian oil production. Based on these assumptions Norway will continue to be a significant oil producer several decades into the next century.