The discovery of the Havis field opens a new petroleum province in the Barents Sea, Statoil leader Helge Lund says.

Exploration drilling conducted with the Aker Barents rig shows that the Havis field contains between 200-300 million tons of oil equivalents, Statoil informs in a press release.

Statoil and its partners Eni and Petoro have long had big expectations from the structure, which is located only few kilometers from Skrugard, the major discovery made in early 2011.

-With about the same volumes and reservoir characters, the Havis field is the twin of Skrugard, CEO Helge Lund says. -The two fields open a new petroleum province in the North, he adds.

The two fields, which are located only seven kilometers apart, constitute separate structures and are not inter-connected. Havis has a gas column of 48 meters and an oil column of 128 meters. The license is owned by Statoil (50%) while Eni (30%) and Petoro (20%) are partners.

Havis and Skrugard are located about 100 north of Statoil´s Snøhvit field and have no existing infrastructure connections. That will soon change, and Statoil is now considering several development alternatives, among them the construction of a floating production unit.

As BarentsObserver has reported, Statoil is now about to start drilling also an appraisal well at Skrugard.