The company said that the size of the discovery is estimated at between 19 and 75 million barrels of recoverable oil equivalent.
The discovery was made in the Rimfaks valley where drilling of well 34/10-53 S, by the Deepsea Atlantic drilling rig, hit a column of around 300m.
The company hit gas was in the Brent group while there was no trace of hydrocarbons in the Statfjord group.
The well was drilled to a vertical depth of 3,847m below sea level, concluded in the Lower Jurassic rocks of the Statfjord group.
The well has not been formation tested, but further data acquisition and sampling are being made to determine the hydrocarbon system and estimate contacts.
Following the completion of the data acquisition and permanent plugging of the well, the rig will drill a sidetrack well to Opal, which is a prospect in the Middle Jurassic reservoir rocks (Brent group) located west of the Rimfaks valley in production license 050B.
The licensees of PL050 and PL050B are Statoil (operator, 70%) and Petoro (30%).
