Though few commercial discoveries were made, Norwegian energy company Statoil said Friday it showed it can work safely in remote parts of the Barents Sea.
Statoil announced it completed its exploration season in remote arctic waters of the Barents Sea, one of the more prolific campaigns in the company's history.
Irene Reummelhoff, senior vice president for exploration on the Norwegian continental shelf, said the campaign resulted in fewer commercial discoveries than expected, though the program still had its victories.
"We have tested a great variety of geological plays in frontier areas and dramatically increased our knowledge with the huge amount of subsurface data we have collected," she said in a statement. "We have also demonstrated that we can operate in a safe and efficient manner in the remote parts of the Barents Sea."
Activists with the environmental group Greenpeace had said the limited success of Statoil's program indicated the campaign in frontier waters of the Barents Sea wasn't worth the risk.
Many of the discoveries declared by Statoil in untested waters were characterized as small. Greenpeace said much of Statoil's campaign was endangering a vulnerable seabird habitat.
"Statoil should concentrate its resources on preparing the company for a carbon free future and not burn them on trying to extract expensive and dangerous arctic oil," Truls Gulowsen, program manager for Greenpeace in Norway, said in a statement sent to UPI. "Statoil's Arctic venture is simply useless adventurism to the detriment of the climate and the environment."
More than a dozen Greenpeace demonstrators took part in a protest against Statoil's drilling plans for arctic waters by boarding the Transocean rig Spitsbergen in May. Around half of them surrendered their campaign voluntarily and Statoil said the seven activists who remained behind were arrested by Norwegian police
Reummelhoff said the company would analyze data collected from the frontier campaign to decide how to move forward in the region.
"Exploring in the Barents Sea is not a sprint, but a marathon," she said. "It is about long-term thinking, stamina and systematic building of knowledge."
