Large uncertainty about petroleum in delimitation line area
- Worst case scenario is no resources in the area, says Professor Jan Inge Faleide at the Institute of Geology at the University of Oslo.
Professor Faleide is one of the world’s leading experts on the geology of the Barents Sea.
Interviewed by the Oslo University’s research magazine Apollon, Jan Inge Faleide says his research group has studied how the last Ice Age has influenced on the sediments of the area of the Barents Sea where Norway and Russia now have agreed on the border delimitation.
The area received high pressure and lost between one to two kilometres with sediments during the Ice Age, and therefore much of the petroleum resources that might have been there is now gone.
- We are confident that there were good oil and gas fields in the southwestern Barents Sea for five to ten million years ago, says Faleide to Apollon. The question is how much, if any, of the oil and gas fields that are left in the area.
Last week, BarentsObserver reported that the oil company Eni recently informed that their drilling at the Kobbe formation in the Barents Sea was dry.
Read more: Trans-border gas production in Barents Sea
In September last year, BarentsObserver reported that Russia’s Minister of Natural Resources, Yuri Trutnev, believes the now delineated part of the Barents Sea can include up to ten “very big” and “unique” structures.
Interviewed by RIA Novosti, Trutev stressed that exploration in the area can start only after the ratification of the deal by the two countries’ legislative assemblies and that it subsequently will take “at least 5-7 years” to study the structures and a minimum of 12-15 years before production can start.
Read more: Stoltenberg: Maritime border deal inaugurate a new era
