This week's news that Statoil has discovered up to 130 million barrels of oil at the Verbier sidetrack well in the UK North Sea provided a useful reminder that, as recently as in 2011, the state-controlled Norwegian giant was deemed to be the world's most successful oil and gas explorer.
Yet that fillip cannot hide the disappointment of this year's drilling campaign in the Barents Sea that brought only a minor discovery and came after a poor run with the drillbit that has raised concerns about reserves replacement for Statoil.
