Statoil Awarded Licenses Offshore Nicaragua

Statoil informs it was today awarded four licenses offshore the Nicaraguan Pacific, covering an area of about 16,000 km2 in the largely unexplored Sandino Basin.

Statoil will be the operator with 85 percent equity with the Empresa Nicaraguense del Petroleo (Petronic) participating with the remaining equity.

Nick Maden, senior vice president for Statoil's exploration activities in the Western Hemisphere, said, “Offshore the Nicaraguan Pacific is virtually untested and the awards of new acreage in this frontier area are in line with our exploration strategy of access at scale. This is a long-term opportunity with high subsurface uncertainty, but with impact potential. This position strengthens and develops a wide set of the optionality in Statoil’s long-term international portfolio.”

The license awards represent a country entry for Statoil into Nicaragua, as the company enters in an early exploration phase and with a step-wise exploration program. The initial work commitments during the first exploration phase  of 2.5 years include reprocessing of 2D seismic, acquisition of new 2D seismic data and geology and geophysics (G&G) studies.

Information obtained from initial studies and seismic survey will form the decision basis for Statoil’s next steps in the licenses, the company said.