Norway cuts Ormen Lange size estimate

OSLO Feb 24 (Reuters) - The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) on Wednesday said that remaining recoverable resources off Norway stood at 8.1 billion cubic metres of oil equivalent, and cut its estimate for the size of the Ormen Lange gas field.

The NPD said that total oil and gas resources on the Norwegian shelf, including already produced volumes, were more or less steady around 13 billion cubic metres of oil equivalent at the end of 2009.

"This... account shows that 28 discoveries have been made in 2009. The volumes in most of the new discoveries are small and the volume varies between 0.3 million cubic metres of oil equivalent and 38 million," the NPD said in a statement.

The NPD cut gas field Ormen Lange's recoverable reserves estimate by 103 million cubic metres of oil equivalent from an earlier 395 bcm view.

Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) operated Ormen Lange, on stream since 2007, is a major supplier of gas to Britain, capable of meeting up to 20 percent of the UK's gas demand.

In past years Shell has drilled two appraisal wells in the still undeveloped northern part of the field, triggering the reserves downgrade which is expected to have impact on later stages of production from the Norwegian Sea field.

Besides Shell, Norway's Statoil (STL.OL) and state-owned Petoro, U.S. major Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N) and Danish DONG Energy [DONG.OL] all own stakes in the field.

(Reporting by Oslo newsroom)