ConocoPhillips Finds Natural Gas in North Sea's Ula Field

ConocoPhillips has made a new gas discovery in the North Sea that requires further tests to determine the size of the find, the Norwegian government announced Monday.

The U.S. company drilled two wells to prove the presence of gas in the southern portion of the North Sea. A 40-meter gross gas colomn was discovered as a result of the drilling, according to a report from the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate,

Further evaluation of the well results is necessary in order to calculate the size of the discovery, said the directorate on its website on Monday.

The gas find is located 11 miles southwest of the country's Ula oil field, roughly located between the British Ilses and Scandinavia. The North Sea has been an area of significant oil and natural gas exploration for several decades, and the Ula field is estimated to hold millions of cubic feet of recoverable natural gas.

Monday's announcement comes on the heels of a prior oil find in the region. Earlier last week, Centrica Resources, a British oil company, found the presence of a crude pocket in the region the size of which is estimated at roughly 62.9 million barrels of oil.