Statoil finds more oil in North Sea

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STAVANGER, Norway, Nov. 7 (UPI) -- Norwegian energy company Statoil said it had confirmed there was "exceptionally good" oil at a field in the North Sea.

Statoil said it completed a successful appraisal well in the so-called Johan Sverdrup discovery area in the North Sea.

Gro Haatvedt, a vice president of Norwegian exploration for Statoil, said delineating the Johan Sverdrup area has been a challenge because of variations in quality and thickness. She confirmed, however, "that this part of the Johan Sverdrup field has the same exceptionally good reservoir with about 98 feet being oil saturated."

Statoil last year announced one of the largest oil finds on the Norwegian continental shelf at the Sverdrup field. The company estimated there were 900 million-1.5 billion barrels of recoverable oil equivalent there, twice the previous estimate. A 114-foot oil column was discovered in the area in August.

Statoil said it expected to maintain a production capacity from the Norwegian continental shelf of around 600,000 barrels of oil per day for the rest of the decade.