Norway's Statoil Friday announced a doubling of recoverable reserves at its already huge Aldous Major South discovery in PL265 in the North Sea to 900 million-1.5 billion barrels of oil equivalent.
It had previously said that PL265 volumes were between 400 million boe and 800 million boe.
Statoil, the operator, together with partners Petoro, Det norske pljeselskap and Lundin Norway, confirmed what it called "significant additional volumes" in its appraisal well in the Aldous Major South discovery, the state-owned company said in a statement.
Statoil said it had previously been confirmed that there was a connection between the Aldous discovery in PL265 and the equally significant nearby Avaldsnes discovery in PL501, made by Sweden's Lundin Petroleum.
"Aldous/Avaldsnes is a giant, and one of the largest finds ever on the Norwegian continental shelf," said Tim Dodson, Statoil's executive vice president for exploration.
"Volume estimates have now increased further because the appraisal well confirms a continuous, very good and thick reservoir in Aldous Major South," Dodson added.
