Offshore staff

A/S Norske Shell has made a significant gas discovery in Jurassic sandstones in the Onyx South West prospect in block 6406/9 of Production License 255 in the Norwegian Sea off mid-Norway.

The operator drilled the well to 5,052 m TD, in 308 m of water, using the semisubmersible,Transocean Leader. Shell has completed a comprehensive logging, sampling, and testing program as well. It tested two zones. Each flowed at a maximum rate of about 1.4 MMcm/d.

Rien Herber, exploration director of Shell Exploration & Production in Europe says: "We drilled Onyx South West as one of our global "Big Cat" prospects. Information from core, fluid sample, and production test data indicates the presence of a substantial gas column, which is very encouraging, and there are indications that we are dealing with a significant find. We intend to follow up this discovery with an accelerated program of appraisal and exploration in 2006. Our strategy is to add more integrated gas to our portfolio, and the Norwegian Sea is an important area of focus for our exploration efforts in Europe."

Thorhild Widvey, Norway's Minister of Petroleum and Energy, believes the Onyx South West discovery could lead to a renewed interest in the area. "The new discovery in the Norwegian Sea is very encouraging and proves that the Norwegian continental shelf has great potential for new and significant finds."

Shell holds a 30% shareholding in PL255 and is the operator of the block. Shell's partners in this license are Petoro 30%, Statoil 20%, and Total 20%.

05/23/05