Norway oil firm makes large discovery

A Norwegian oil industry firm has made the largest oil strike of the last 30 years in the North Sea.

Statoil made the announcement yesterday (August 16th) and claimed that the oil field could potentially contain between 500 million and 1.2 billion barrels of recoverable oil.

The new discovery lies between two oil fields previously used by Satoil in the North Sea, Aldous and Avaldsnes.

"Norway has not seen a similar oil discovery since the mid-'80s," said Tim Dodson, Statoil's executive vice president for Exploration, adding that it was "a giant oil discovery".

"It's probably the largest offshore oil discovery anywhere in the world this year. It has given the entire oil industry renewed optimism," he said.

Statoil currently operates more than 80 per cent of Norway's oil production but missed its targets in 2010 and was previously on track for another slow year.

Oil industry giant Shell has also made the headlines this week as it announced that a pipeline in the North Sea is still leaking, with the Department of Energy and Climate Change called the spill "substantial".