Statoil sees lower exploration activity next year

OSLO: Oil major Statoil will drill fewer exploration wells next year but will continue to explore in its home base of Norway, offshore Canada and maybe in Russia in 2016, its exploration chief told Reuters on Monday.

Statoil, like other oil firms, is cutting costs to protect dividend payments after 18 months of lower crude prices.

Last month it said it would cut capital expenditure by another $1 billion to a total of $16.5 billion this year.

"Our activity level will likely be lower next year," Tim Dodson told Reuters on the sidelines of an oil and gas conference, adding that the firm would drill fewer wells in 2016 compared with 2015.

Iran remained off the agenda for the moment, despite an agreement to restrict the country's nuclear activities.

"For the time being we have no plans. We are not engaging with Iran because of the sanctions," said Dodson.

Staoil would look to expand closer to home. "Norway will still be part of our programme, as it always is. We are looking to pick up more acreage to bring into the portfolio," Dodson said.

"We have delivered a very expansive application for the APA (mature licensing) round. We will be doing the same for the 23rd round (for new areas)."

Statoil earlier this month won several licenses off the coast of Canada, an area where it made a big discovery called Bay du Nord with up to 600 million barrels of recoverable oil.

"We have identified quite a lot of upside.

There are opportunities there similar in magnitude to Bay du Nord," he said.

In Russia, Statoil is not able to explore on the Russian side of the Barents Sea due to the sanctions imposed on Moscow in the wake of the Ukraine crisis.

But it could continue with its exploration for Russian shale with Rosneft in the Volga-Urals basin, which Dodson has previously described as a place with "fantastic" geology with "huge upside".

"We are still in the final negotiations process," said Dodson, adding that if those were concluded, drilling operations could start next year. The company will also drill two wells in the Okhotsk Sea together with Russia's Rosneft, Dodson said.

Statoil added those two drilling campaigns would only go ahead if there were no further sanctions imposed on Russia.