Minerals Report - International Seabed Authority

in the Barents Sea there is still a dispute between Norway and Russia. While
Norway is claiming the median line principle, Russia is claiming the sector
line principle. In that area therefore, no exploration is permitted for either
Norway or Russia by agreement between the two states.
Dr. Nyland said that the first offshore licensing round was announced
in 1965, and the first offshore well was drilled in 1966. She said that the well
was drilled in the southern part of the North Sea where every one was looking
for the same analogy as the Groningen gas field. She said that the first
discovery of an oil field was made in 1967, followed by the first production of
oil in 1971. She said that the discovery and subsequent production was
because of a mistake. She said that the effort that had been undertaken was to
discover a formation like the Groningen field. She said that prior to the
discovery, the 40 wells that were drilled in the same area yielded neither gas
nor petroleum. She said that through an accident, someone drilled one
hundred metres deeper resulting in the discovery of the Ekofisk field, which
is one of the largest fields in production. She said that the field contains about
600 million cubic metres of oil, started producing in 1971, and remains one of
the largest contributors to the Norwegian economy.
Dr. Nyland said that there are 46 fields in production, and that
production from 10 other fields has ceased. She said that 975 exploration
wells have been drilled, and 230 discoveries made. She said that a large
number have not been approved for development for a variety of reasons.
She said that some of the discoveries are rather small and some are a
combination of gas and oil that have not been proven economically viable for
development.
She said that exploration for oil on land has only taken place in the
Svalbard peninsula. She reported that 20 wells have been drilled here, and
that small traces of gas have been found. She informed participants that there
is coal mining on the peninsula.
Dr. Nyland showed participants a map of the seafloor topography. She
pointed out the Norwegian trench, which she said was a major issue in the
debate on the median line principle. She said that this was because it was felt
that the Norwegian continental shelf stopped at the trench since the trench is
INTERNATIONAL SEABED AUTHORITY 804