ConocoPhillips submitted on Monday a plan to develop an oil discovery in the Norwegian North Sea for 10.5 billion Norwegian crowns ($1.10 billion), the U.S. petroleum company said.
Known as Eldfisk North, the development is part of the wider Ekofisk area, where hydrocarbons have been pumped for more than 50 years, and the operator said the new reserves are expected to come on stream in 2024.
The Eldfisk North reservoir contains mostly oil and some gas and is estimated to hold between 50 million and 90 million barrels of oil equivalent, ConocoPhillips said.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Norway introduced tax incentives for fields covered by development plans introduced by the end of 2022, part of Norway's bid to extend the life of its oil and gas industry for decades.
The plan is subject to customary approvals from Norwegian authorities.
"We are going to process the development plan as fast as possible," Norway's Minister of Petroleum and Energy Terje Aasland told reporters.
Ekofisk is operated by ConocoPhillips, which holds a 35.1% stake, while TotalEnergies owns 39.9%, Vaar Energi 12.4%, Equinor 7.6% and Petoro 5%.
Norway is western Europe's largest oil and gas producer, pumping around four million barrels of oil equivalent per day, but some of its major fields face depletion in the coming decade.
($1 = 9.5506 Norwegian crowns)
(Reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis and Nora Buli, editing by Terje Solsvik, Kirsten Donovan)
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