Statoil, Norway's largest oil company, discovered oil at the Geitungen prospect in the North Sea in a potential expansion of the Johan Sverdrup deposit, Norway's largest oil find since 1974.

As much as 270 million barrels of recoverable oil equivalent was found at Geitungen, which is located 3 kilometres north of the Sverdrup discovery, Statoil said in a statement today.

"The Geitungen discovery will be included in the ongoing development work for the Johan Sverdrup field," Oeivind Reinersten, Statoil's head of Johan Sverdrup field development, said in the statement.

Data indicates that the there is probably a link between the two finds, the company said.

The Johan Sverdrup discovery has been estimated to hold as much as 3.3 billion barrels of oil equivalent. Statoil is operator for production license 265 with a 40 per cent stake.

Petoro holds a 30 per cent stake, Det Norske Oljeselskap 20 per cent and Lundin Petroleum 10 per cent.

Separately, Lundin said it completed drilling of an appraisal well at the northeastern part of the Sverdrup prospect, encountering a 25 metre oil column and "excellent reservoir properties."

The result of the latest appraisal well "confirms the structural model and the extent of the field in this area," Lundin chief executive officer Ashley Heppenstall said in a statement.

"We again encountered excellent quality Volgian reservoir at this location. We will now sidetrack the well to acquire additional data as well as investigating the possibility of a deeper oil water contact in this area."

Bloomberg