CVX Chevron Corporation

   By Dominic Chopping 
 

Norwegian oil major Statoil ASA (STO) said Thursday that together with co-owners of the Stampede development in the Gulf of Mexico they have sanctioned the project.

Statoil will invest $1.5 billion in the development, which is expected to begin production in 2018.

Stampede is located 350 kilometers from New Orleans, Louisiana and Statoil estimates the reservoir contains 350 million barrels of recoverable oil.

Statoil, operator Hess Corp. (HES), Chevron Corp. (CVX) unit Union Oil Company of California and Nexen Corp. (005720.SE) each own 25% of the development and total development cost is seen at $6 billion.

-Write to Dominic Chopping at dominic.chopping@wsj.com; Twitter: @WSJNordics

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