Trade body Oil & Gas UK has welcomed the news that Azinor Catalyst has struck oil at Agar-Plantain in the Northern North Sea as “promising proof of industry’s competitive approach to exploration activity.”

The discovery, located in the Viking Graben area in the Northern North Sea, contains 15-50 million barrels of recoverable resources.

Oil & Gas UK market intelligence manager Ross Dornan said: “This is further evidence that the improved competitiveness of the industry, alongside the constructive regulatory and fiscal environment, is encouraging a pick-up in investment.

“This successful exploration project is very welcome and we need more of this to help keep production levels up.

“Agar-Plantain is a sizeable discovery, in an area with good access to infrastructure.

“This project shows the type of approach required to maximise economic recovery from the basin which still has 10-20 billion barrels of remaining potential.

“This is a further sign of growing confidence in the basin after the increase in applications to the 31st Licensing Round.

“Harnessing seismic data, new technologies and industry knowledge are all critical to unlocking further success and helping to realise Vision 2035.”