The company plans to perform a three- to six-month extended production test starting in third-quarter 2017, following the completion in April of a light oil resource volume assessment, to help determine the commerciality of the discovery.
With 1.2 billion barrels of recoverable light oil, Repsol and Denver-based Armstrong Energy claim the discovery is the "largest U.S. onshore conventional hydrocarbons discovery in 30 years."
A string of oil discoveries, such as Johan Castberg, Wisting and Alta/Gohta, in recent years has added to the attractiveness of the Barents Sea.
Lundin Petroleum AB plans to spin off its assets from outside of Norway into a separately listed company and will distribute shares in the new firm to existing investors.
To better gauge resource potential, ExxonMobil said the discovery is being evaluated with two sidetracks drilled. A well test is underway.
Advanced seismic data helped the company discover additional pay.
Preliminary results from Cobalt International Energy Inc.’s latest appraisal well at the North Platte prospect in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico show the well hit about 198 m (650 ft) of net oil pay.
Aker BP ASA, operator of production license 442, has concluded the drilling of a wildcat well and three appraisal wells, encountering oil with three of the four wells, according to the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD).
The company struck oil in Green Canyon and just south of Keathley Canyon in the Sigsbee Escarpment.
Neiden exploration well 7220/6-2R, located in PL609 northeast of the Alta discovery on the Loppa High in the southern Barents Sea, hit a gross 31-m hydrocarbon column, with 21 m of oil and 10 m gas in the Permian target, Lundin Petroleum said in a statement.