Tullow Oil and its partners have made the first oil discovery in the Hoop-Maud Basin in the Barents Sea offshore Norway, it announced today.

The light oil, shallow water discovery was made in the Wisting Central exploration well.

Tullow has a 20 per cent interest in the licence covering the location, with OMV operating and Idemitsu, Statoil and Petoro the other partners in the venture.

Exploration director Angus McCoss said it was a major frontier light oil discovery for Norway, Tullow Oil and its partners.

“The Wisting Central wildcat well has opened the Hoop-Maud Basin by proving a new shallow play in the region. This discovery also demonstrates the effectiveness of leading edge exploration techniques, pioneered by Tullow’s Norwegian exploration team, that combine shallow seismic and electromagnetic survey data in the search for oil,” he said.