At the moment the analysis is not thorough enough to say if the discovery is large enough for production. Press spokesman in StatoilHydro, Edd-Magne Torbergsen, says to NRK that they need more information about the well before they can draw any conclusions about the size or volume of the discovery. It may take months, maybe years, before these estimates are ready. StatoilHydro is planning to drill a new well later this year to map the discovery better.
In spite of the recent discovery, StatoilHydro is level-headed about their expectations for the field. Since 1980 there have been a lot of discoveries in the Barents Sea, but only two of them have been large enough to start production, “Snøhvit” and “Goliat”.
