STAVANGER, Norway, Feb. 7 (UPI) -- Norwegian oil company Statoil said Friday it had a successful 2013 in terms of oil and gas reserves generated from its exploration activity.
Statoil said Friday it "delivered the best oil and gas exploration results in the industry" last year in terms of conventional oil and gas discoveries.
Last year, the company said its Bay du Nord discovery off the eastern coast of Canada was one of the largest for 2013 with at least 300 million barrels of recoverable oil. In its report Friday, it said the Canadian discovery contributed to the addition of 1.25 billion barrels of oil equivalent from exploration activity in 2013.
"Our operational performance was good," Helge Lund, Statoil's president and chief executive officer, said in a statement Friday.
The company said it plans to spend $3.5 billion on exploration activity in 2014, though its overall planned investment of $20 billion through 2016 is 8 percent less than previous estimates.
Overall production growth is estimated at 2 percent through 2013 and the company said it plans to drill 50 new wells this year.
Statoil said its net operating profit for the fourth quarter of about $7 billion was 4 percent less than the previous quarter.
