The Norwegian government confirmed Wednesday oil and gas reserves were discovered in a North Sea area not known previously to contain hydrocarbons.

“The steel jacket will also be one of the most complex ever built by the industry. Not only will we route the land-based power through the jacket, we’ll also be controlling the subsea water injection and exporting the field’s oil and gas from it,”

According to Statistics Norway, total investments in oil and gas activity in 2016 should be NOK 184.9 billion, which is 1.4% higher than the corresponding estimate for 2015.

A consortium led by Norway’s Statoil discovered a gas pay zone at wildcat well 6706/11-2 in the Gymir prospect in the Norwegian Sea. The well was drilled about 12 miles west of the Aasta Hansteen field to prove petroleum in Upper Cretaceous reservoir rocks, in the Nise formation.

Norway's previously long-standing cordial relations with Russia have deteriorated to the point that there is a real chance that simmering feelings could escalate, leading to a breakdown of cooperation in the oil and gas sector, writes Platts.

The current recoverable volume of oil in fields and discoveries exceeds the estimated figure in 2005, and it is also presumed that more oil remains to be discovered. This is the result of the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate’s (NPD’s) review of the resource basis in a select number of fields and discoveries on the Norwegian shelf between 2005 and 2014.

Britain's largest energy supplier Centrica (CNA.L) has signed new gas contracts with two of the world's largest producers, Russia's Gazprom and Norway's Statoil, reflecting the UK's growing dependence on gas imports as its production declines.

Norway’s $916bn oil fund on Wednesday trumpeted its best-ever quarterly return, boosted by monetary stimulus in Europe that put a rocket under the region’s stock markets.

ConocoPhillips, the third-largest U.S. oil producer, is exploring the sale of some its North Sea assets in Norway as it seeks to divest overseas operations, two people with knowledge of the matter said.

The Scandinavian country is one of the wealthiest nations in the world, thanks to 40 years of North Sea oil production. The global financial crisis barely registered amid decades of almost nonstop growth.