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Seventeen oil companies, including most of
the majors, are teaming up to map the seabed in an Arctic offshore zone
once disputed by Russia and Norway, showing their eagerness to explore
for oil in the remote region.
Despite recent setbacks such as the
grounding of Royal Dutch Shell's drillship off Alaska, energy firms
remain keen to explore for crude in the area, which the U.S. Geological
Survey estimates to hold 90 billion barrels of oil.
The new area on the Norwegian side, which
is as large as Switzerland, is being opened to energy firms following a
border deal between Oslo and Moscow in 2010. It is the first area to be
opened off Norway in nearly two decades.
The Norwegian Oil Directorate had already
mapped some of the area. But on Tuesday, the Norwegian oil industry
lobby said 17 oil firms would cooperate in commissioning more surveys of
the seabed.
They are: BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips
, Eni, Royal Dutch Shell, Lukoil, Idemitsu, Repsol, Det norske,
Wintershall, Suncor, VNG, PGNiG , Spike, Statoil, GDF Suez and Lundin
Petroleum.
Tendering will begin immediately, with
surveying starting in April next year and concluding in the
autumn, Statoil said in a separate statement.
Norwegian seismic surveyor Polarcus said it
would participate in the tender, which might be big enough to secure
work for two or three seismic vessels that search for oil and gas
deposits under the sea.
"This means there will be a lot of work
coming up in the eastern part of the Barents Sea," Chief Executive Rolf
Roenningen told Reuters.
Post to be found at:
http://www.maritime-executive.com/article/17-Oil-Firms-Team-Up-to-Map-Norwegian-Arctic-Seabed-2013-12-10/
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