Norway confirms Eni’s Arctic oil findBarents Sea Goliat field 50 miles northwest of northernmost town; environmentalists claim area too sensitive for development The Associated Press
Norwegian authorities on Jan. 5 confirmed a promising oil and natural gas find in the Barents Sea off the country’s northern tip.
The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate said an exploration well drilled by project operator Eni Norge AS, a branch of the Italian energy group Eni SpA, made finds that were very promising.
“The find can have great significance for future exploration in the surrounding areas of the Barents Sea,” the directorate said in a statement.
The field, called Goliat, is about 50 miles northwest of Norway’s northernmost town, Hammerfest, and is in an Arctic area environmentalists claim is too ecologically sensitive to withstand oil production. Find announced in December The find was first announced in December by the tiny Norwegian oil company DNO, a project partner, breaking a tradition of allowing the directorate to make such announcements first.
At the time, neither Eni nor the directorate would comment.
In the Jan. 5 news release, the directorate said drilling to a depth of 8,861 feet had hit hydrocarbons at three different levels of the well.
“The find in the deeper formations is seen as extremely positive because it indicates a petroleum potential that was not previously confirmed in that area of the Hammerfest basin,” it said.
Neither the companies nor the directorate gave an estimate of the size of find.
Norway wants oil companies to look for oil and natural gas in the Barents Sea, hoping to maintain flow levels that make the Nordic nation the world’s third-largest oil exporter, after Saudi Arabia and Russia.
Eni, with a 65 percent stake, operates the field on behalf of its partners, state-controlled Norwegian oil company Statoil ASA, which has a 20 percent stake, and DNO, which has 15 percent.
Last year Eni purchased Armstrong Alaska’s assets in northern Alaska, entering the state for the first time.
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