The Norwegian oil major admitted the play, in the South Georgina basin, was a "high risk" move but also has "significant upsides" as it involves "potentially highly prospective play at low cost".
Through a joint-venture project in Australia's Northern Territories, Statoil and Petrofrontier could drill between 10 and 20 wells by 2017, the former said on Wednesday.
Although Statoil is only committing $25 million to the first of three phases of exploration, this could rise to $200 million in the second two phases depending on results.
