According to Ambassador Barry White, U.S. oil companies are showing renewed interest to the Barents Sea after Statoil’s discovery of the oil and gas field Skrugard, which was announced on Friday.
- They [U.S. oil companies] are interested in talking to the Norwegians, White says NRK. -Without doubt, they are paying attention.
Read also: Finally large Barents oil discovery
Before Statoil made the discovery on Skrugard, more than 80 wells have been drilled in the southern part of the Norwegian sector of the Barents Sea. So far, Snøhvit gas field is the only in production, while Eni Norway’s Goliat oil field is under development.
In the end of 2010, Wikileaks documents revealed that U.S. oil companies could be withdrawing from Norwegian waters if Lofoten was not opened for exploration. Now it seems that they will turn their eyes towards the Barents Sea.
In March 2011 the Norwegian government decided not to elaborate any consequence study for the Lofoten waters in this election period, as BarentsObserver reported.
