An oil or gas field must be of a certain size in order to be economically interesting for production, since the development of a new field is very expensive. All together there have been performed 83 exploration drillings in the Barents Sea, according to Dagens Næringsliv .
The Snøhvit gas field was found already in 1981. The other field which has been found is the Goliat oil field. The rest of the exploration drillings have given small or no results.
Every exploration drilling has a cost of approximately 65 million EUR. During the last five years there have been performed 15 drillings at a total cost of approximately 1 billion EUR. Even though disappointment has been the recurring story for the oil companies in the Barents Sea, oil companies are increasing the pace on exploration drillings in this area. Over the next two years there will be drilling on 7-12 new wells. The outcome of these wells will probably be very decisive for the interest of this area for oil companies in the years to come, says Arvid Jensen in Petro Arctic.
Statoil, Eni and Gaz de France are all planning to do drillings in the Barents Sea, while several other companies are about to decide whether or not they will invest here. As we have previously reported on BarentsObserver, Statoil will start drilling at the Skrugard field, 200 kilometers off the coast of Finnmark, in late 2010.
