France-based oil company Total said Thursday it had secured a 40 percent stake in a Barents Sea offshore license still not printed on maps put out by the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy.

The oil company said it now holds a stake in license PL 535, a production permit said to hold the promising Nordvarg prospect. The license covers Block 7225/3 and Block 7226/1 about 275 kilometres from a gas plant at Hammerfest, on the north Norwegian coast.

Aker Exploration, Rocksource and North Energy have a 20 percent stake in the license.

Total said it plans more drilling off Norway in 2009, with “an important” appraisal well of the Victoria gas discovery in the Norwegian Sea and an “appraisal-development” well at the Hild discovery in the North Sea.

Norway is the largest contributor to Total’s production and adds 335,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day from 35 fields on the Norwegian continental shelf (most of it from the Ekofisk area).

Tags: Barents