Spanish oil group Repsol SA (OTCMKTS:REPYY) said on Thursday it has made one of the biggest conventional onshore oil discoveries in the US for decades on Alaska’s North Slope.
The Spanish group said the latest drilling at its Nanushuk play had extended previous discoveries by 20 miles and increased estimated resources to 1.2bn barrels of recoverable light crude oil.
The discovery promises to help breathe fresh life into Alaska’s North Slope oilfields where production has been in decline for three decades.
ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) also announced a big find there in January, which raised hopes of a new wave of development.
Repsol’s ADRs were up 2.4% at $15.14 on Thursday. Conoco, on the other hand, shared in the energy sector’s downbeat mood on falling oil prices in the wake of this week’s shock high inventories measured by the EIA, and its shares were down 0.2% at $45.83.