LONDON (Dow Jones)--Oil and gas explorer Faroe Petroleum PLC (FPM.LN) Thursday said it struck oil at an exploration well in the Norwegian North Sea. Faroe said an initial analysis of the Maria prospect indicates between 75 million and 155 million barrels of oil equivalent could be recovered. "Maria is clearly material to Faroe," said Graham Stewart, chief executive. Faroe owns a 30% interest in Maria, giving it net recoverable volumes of between 22 million and 46 million barrels. The discovery is situated on the Halten Terrace, which is near existing oil and gas fields. Maria is Faroe's second discovery in the Norwegian North Sea this year, following a discovery at Fogelberg in April. Faroe's partners at Maria are Centrica PLC (CNA.LN), Spring Energy, Wintershall and Concedo. Faroe said further evaluation of the Maria discovery is planned. The company is involved in three more exploration wells in the deepwater Atlantic margin scheduled to be drilled in 2010, including Anne Marie at the Faroe Islands and U.K. North Sea prospects operated by Eni SpA (ENI.MI), BP PLC (BP.LN) and Chevron Corp. (CVX). -By Jason Douglas, Dow Jones Newswires; 44-20-7842-9272; jason.douglas@dowjones.com (END) Dow Jones Newswires July 22, 2010 02:42 ET (06:42 GMT)