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Disappointing Arctic summer for Statoil

The Transocean Spitsbergen rig drilled the Atlantis well in the Barents Sea.

The Norwegian oil company did not discover much-desired hydrocarbons at the Atlantis structure in the Barents Sea. Meanwhile, the Austrian OMV is drilling with success at its neighboring license areas.

Location

Statoil had big expectations from the Atlantis well, a structure located in the prospective Hoop area. However, this month’s drilling at the site showed only minor volumes of gas, the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate informs in a press release. The negative results come after another failed drilling operation at the nearby Apollo well.

According to the directorate, the Atlantis well is not commercially viable and has therefore been plugged and abandoned. The structure is located 360 km north of Hammerfest, the town on the Norwegian Arctic coast.

While Statoil is experiencing downturns, the Austrian oil company OMV is successfully drilling in the same area. After making a major discovery at the Wisting Central structure in 2013, the company in early July this year announced that it had made another finding at the neighboring Hanssen well. OMV estimates the resouces of the area to 200-500 million barrels of oil equivalents.