By Gwladys Fouche
OSLO, July 12 (Reuters) - Norwegian oil firm Aker BPhas made an oil discovery off Norway which couldstrengthen its hand in negotiations with its sometimes partnerEquinor on how to develop fields.
Aker-BP is the result of a merger of BP's Norwegianoil assets and the Det norske oil firm controlled by billionaireKjell-Inge Roekke.
The company said on Thursday it had made an oil discoverywith partner LOTOS of Poland estimated to hold between80 million and 200 million barrels of recoverable oil equivalent(boe), in an area with several oil and gas discoveries,nicknamed NOAKA.
Up to 700 million boe are in place overall at the discovery,called Liataarnet, but Aker BP needs to do more work to find outhow much it can extract, the company said.
Aker BP and its partner in some of the NOAKA fields,state-controlled giant Equinor, are at odds about how to developthem.
"This is a clear message to partner Equinor in terms ofdevelopment solutions for NOAKA. We believe the Liataarnetdiscovery will improve Aker BP's negotiation position vs.Equinor," Sparebank 1 Markets said in a note to clients.
Aker BP also said it would slightly increase its capital andexploration spending this year.
Spending on exploring new oil and gas fields will rise to$550 million this year, from its previous guidance for $500million. Capital expenditure is now seen in a range of $1.6-$1.7billion compared with previous guidance for $1.6 billion.
The development of the Johan Sverdrup field was progressingwell, Aker BP said. Scheduled to start production in November,it is the biggest oil find made off Norway in more than threedecades and is likely to account for 25% of the Nordic country'stotal petroleum output at its peak in 2022.
Overall, Aker's net income fell to $62 million in the secondquarter from $128 million a year earlier.
Aker BP reported on July 4 that its net sales of oil for hadreached 140,700 barrels of oil equivalent per day in thequarter.(Reporting by Gwladys Fouche; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier andMark Potter)
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