Statoil's oil find in North Sea bigger than expected

OSLO: An oil find by Statoil in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea is much bigger than earlier thought and the find could be tied into the Grane field, the firm said in a statement on Tuesday.

The discovery, first proven in 1992, contains between 30 and 80 million barrels of recoverable oil, well above previous estimates for about 6 million barrels, the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate added.

The find is 7 kilometres north of the Grane field and near Statoil's Grane F oil discovery made in 2013.

Statoil owns 57 percent of the production licence, state holding firm Petoro has 30 percent and ExxonMobil has 13 percent.