Encouraged by recently opened areas and potentially huge yet-to-be-discovered resources, oil companies launched a record exploration drilling campaign in Norway’s Barents Sea this year. But as the summer and the drilling progressed, one dry well after another spelled the end of a disappointing 2017 campaign in which just two viable oil discoveries were made. The most promising wildcat yielded no oil. Still, Norway’s Statoil and Aker BP, along with the Norwegian unit of Sweden’s Lundin Petroleum, are not giving up on exploration in the Barents Sea and promise to return for the 2018 drilling campaign. “Access to new exploration areas will be crucial to the future of the Norwegian continental shelf,” says Statoil, which sees a significant drop in production and activity after 2025 without new exploration acreage and discoveries. Following a continual decline between 2001 and 2013, Norway’s crude oil production rose last year for the third year […]