By Kjetil Malkenes Hovland
OSLO--Norway's Statoil ASA (STO) said Tuesday it will take the
lead in a five-company cooperation effort to explore the Barents
Sea, a move to reduce the cost of operations in the frontier Arctic
area after an oil price plunge since last year.
The cooperation is set to last for at least three years, and
initially includes Eni SpA (E), Lundin Petroleum AB (LUPE.SK), OMV
AG (OMV.VI) and GDF Suez SA (GSZ.FR), companies that have licenses
in the area or that have already made discoveries there, Statoil
said.
Crude oil is trading slightly above $60 a barrel, compared with
over $100 a barrel a year ago, and the lower prices are encouraging
oil companies to cut costs, but they are also an incentive to
explore for additional resources near existing discoveries to boost
their profitability.
The companies are setting up working groups to share data and
address topics such as weather and ice conditions, oil spill
response, logistics, emergency preparedness, mobile drilling rigs
and working environments, Statoil said.
Write to Kjetil Malkenes Hovland at
kjetilmalkenes.hovland@wsj.com
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