The Arctic May Save Norway's Oil Industry

In April the Polar Pioneer, a Transocean drilling rig working for Statoil (STO), the Norwegian state energy company, and its partner, ENI (E), struck oil in about 1,000 feet of water some 120 miles north of the Norwegian mainland and the same distance south of Bear Island in the Barents Sea, inside the Arctic Circle.

Statoil thinks the find—now called Skrugard—as well as surrounding areas might eventually yield 500 million barrels of oil. That is not a huge discovery, but it has sent a frisson of excitement through the industry. "It is phenomenal; it confirms that the Barents Sea after so many disappointments is worthwhile," says A. Bjarne Moe, the lanky, bearded director general of the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy.