New Discoveries Can't Match Depletion - Norwegian Oil Directorate

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"Since the discovery of Ekofisk in 1969, more giant discoveries have been proven in Norway than in any other oil province in the world. In fact, one of four giant fields that have been proven world-wide in the past 25 years is located on the Norwegian shelf.

On the Norwegian shelf, as in the rest of the world, the trend is nevertheless that the size of the discoveries is diminishing, while at the same time there is a longer period between each time a new giant field is proven. Ormen Lange was proven in 1997. The field is estimated to contain nearly 400 billion Sm3 gas, and is among the world's five to ten largest discoveries in the past 15 years.

Fewer discoveries – record production

Globally the peak for annual resource growth from new oil and gas discoveries was reached as early as in the 1960s. Since then there has been a steady decline year after year. In Norway the peak was reached in 1979, the year when fields such as Oseberg, Snorre and the gas giant Troll were proven. Troll is one of the world's very largest gas discoveries, and the largest made since the petroleum activities started in Norway. At the same time we produce more oil and gas than ever before. Both in 2002 and 2003 a new production record was set on the Norwegian shelf.

There are many years left before the oil adventure is over. Nevertheless, the situation today is that we produce more than we manage to replace through new discoveries. Oil and gas worth enormous sums are still in the ground. According to the NPD's estimates, there are a lot of undiscovered petroleum resources concealed in the North Sea, the Norwegian Sea and the Barents Sea. The NPD estimates that one-fourth of the total amount of petroleum resources on the Norwegian shelf remain to be found."

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[brokensymmetry]

1. Thanks for posting this!

This is the one place I need to go for environmental information. :hi: