OREANDA-NEWS. Eni has been awarded 4 exploration licenses in the Barents Sea, offshore Norway, of which 3 as Operator.

Eni has been awarded the four licenses following the competitive 22nd international licensing round by the Norwegian Government, which ended today.

The 4 licenses include the Operatorship with an ownership interest of 40% in PL 717, PL 712 and PL 716 and the ownership interest of 30% in PL 714 (Statoil is the operator of PL 714).

This success in the Norwegian upstream confirms Eni's commitment to a region with a high potential for exploration where Eni has recently announced the important oil discoveries of Skrugard (2011) and Havis (2012), now renamed as Johan Castberg.

Eni has been operating in Norway since 1964 and with a daily production of around 111,000 barrels of oil per day the company is one of the largest players in the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS).

Eni operates in Norway through its subsidiary EniNorge AS and is the operator of 13 licenses, including the important Goliat oil discovery in the Barents Sea where the company is in partnership with Statoil (Eni 65%, Statoil 35%). The Goliat field is the first oil project in the Norwegian sector of the Barents Sea.

Eni has interests in a number of exploration licenses and fields in the country, under development and in operation, including Ekofisk, Norne, Marulk, Asgard, Heidrun, Kristin, Mikkel, Thyrians and Urd.