Statoil to drill three exploration wells off Britain in 2018

OSLO, March 2 (Reuters) - Norway's Statoil willdrill three exploration wells on Britain's continental shelf(UKCS) this year, the company said on Friday.

** Plans include an appraisal well at the Verbier prospectin the outer Moray Firth, where Statoil made its largest oildiscovery of 2017

** Statoil estimates the Verbier discovery to holdpreliminary 25-130 million barrels of oil, and the appraisalwell should help to narrow the range

** Statoil holds 70 pct, Jersey Oil and Gas has 18 pct andCIECO V&C (UK) Limited has 12 pct in the Verbier license

** Statoil will also drill exploration wells at the Pipprospect in the Fladen Ground Spur area and at the Bigfootprospect south of the Statoil-operated Mariner field

** Statoil and BP have 50 percent each in the two licenses

** The Norwegian oil and gas firm said these explorationplans demonstrated its commitment to the UKCS and it hoped tomake discoveries that could lead to new oilfield developments

** The three wells will be drilled by Seadrill'sWest Phoenix rig for a total cost of $18.5 million

** In 2017, Statoil also drilled three exploration on theUKCS, with two wells yielding disappointing results(Reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis, editing by Terje Solsvik)