Statoil ASA said its Yeti well in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico showed “encouraging indications” after Norway’s biggest oil company suffered disappointing exploration results in the area last year.

Statoil is analyzing the results of drilling that started at the end of December, Knut Rostad, a spokesman for the Stavanger-based company, said in an e-mail on Monday. He declined to say whether a discovery was made or provide further details.

Rostad’s comments followed a presentation last week in Oslo where Statoil’s exploration chief Tim Dodson said the company was pleased to have secured new acreage near the Yeti prospect. Six of the 14 leases Statoil acquired in the Gulf of Mexico sale are adjacent to Yeti, Rostad said.

Resources added from exploration by Statoil fell almost 60 percent to 540 million barrels of oilequivalent in 2014 after disappointing results in the Gulf of Mexico, offshore Angola and in Norway’s Arctic. The company reduced its 2015 exploration budget to $3.2 billion from $3.5 billion last year after the price of crude slumped.

Statoil made an uncommercial discovery at the Martin prospect in the Gulf of Mexico last year, which contributed to impairment losses of 3.5 billion kroner ($443 million) on exploration assets in its international division in the third quarter. The company is planning two or three wells in the Gulf of Mexico this year, Dodson said last month.

Statoil has a 50 percent stake in Yeti, which is located in the Walker Ridge area. The company’s partners are Anadarko Petroleum Corp. and Samson Oil & Gas Ltd., Rostad said.


Offshore