OSLO, Norway, Jan. 18 (UPI) -- Renaming an oil field on the Norwegian continental shelf shows the importance of the country's offshore energy sector, the government said.
The Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy announced it renamed the Aldous/Avaldsnes oil field after Johan Sverdrup, the leader of the political movement that introduced the parliamentary system to Norway in the late 1800s.
"The Norwegian petroleum adventure is the property of all Norwegians," Energy Minister Ole Borten Moe said in a statement. "That is why it is important that the names of large, independent developments have a signal effect beyond the continental shelf. The choice of name reflects the importance of the project and the operations now being conducted."
Norwegian energy company Statoil trumpeted its success at the NCS. The company said it expected to maintain a production capacity from the continental shelf of around 600,000 barrels of oil per day for the rest of the decade.
Statoil last year recorded one of the largest oil finds on the NCS at the Aldous/Avaldsnes field. Statoil estimated there were 900 million-1.5 billion barrels of recoverable oil equivalent there, twice the previous estimate.
Statoil this week secured the rights to 11 more production licenses on the Norwegian shelf.
