(Adds details on Shell pullout)
OSLO, Nov 17 (Reuters) - Norwegian oil major Statoil said on Tuesday it will pull out of Alaska's ChukchiSea, just weeks after Royal Dutch Shell abandoned thetreacherous waters there after spending billions on oilexploration work.
The latest pullback comes as oil companies slash spending onexpensive offshore projects during the worst price crash in sixyears. Businesses, politicians and environmental groups havesquared off over drilling in the Arctic, which is widelybelieved to have large undiscovered oil resources.
Statoil said it will exit 16 leases it operates and itsstake in 50 leases operated by ConocoPhillips.
"Since 2008, we have worked to progress our options inAlaska. Solid work has been carried out, but, given the currentoutlook, we could not support continued efforts to mature theseopportunities," Statoil exploration chief Tim Dodson said in astatement.
When it pulled out in late September, Shell had alreadyspent about $7 billion on exploration in the waters off Alaskaso far and it later took a charge of $2.6 billion for leavingthe Chukchi Sea, where icebergs can be as large as New York'sManhattan Island.
On a conference call with analysts in late October,ConocoPhillips executives did not specifically addresstheir plans for the shallow waters of the Chukchi Sea.
But they did say they plan to exit all deepwater explorationby 2017 as other projects win out in the budgeting process.
Currently, it has deepwater operations in the Gulf of Mexicoand offshore Senegal, Angola and Canada.
Conoco was npt immediately available to comment on Tuesday. (Reporting by Stine Jacobsen; Additional reporting by TerryWade in Houston; Editing by Terje Solsvik and Jonathan Oatis)
