We have exploration licences in North America (Canada and the USA), Latin America (Brazil, Cuba and Venezuela), Africa (Algeria, Angola, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Mozambique, Nigeria and Tanzania), the European, Caspian and Russian area (Denmark, the Faroes, Ireland, the UK and Azerbaijan), and the Middle East and Asia (Iran, India and Indonesia).

Since 2002, we have carried out a major global screening of oil and gas basins to rebuild our exploration portfolio and we have added significant resources and targeted new high-potential basins globally. In 2008, we have been high-grading the portfolio to better utilise the overall competence pool of StatoilHydro internationally.

In 2008, we have also been further high-grading prospects for our short-term drilling programme. This entails prioritising and sequencing the most prospective drilling targets, optimising allocation of the rig fleet and providing a dedicated exploration organisation. We will continue to high-grade the portfolio in 2009 and the years to come. We plan to drill approximately 35 wells in 2009.

We completed 40 wells in 2008, and nine were ongoing at 31 December 2008. Of 40 wells, eight were announced as discoveries at year end, one was annouced in the first quarter 2009 and 18 are currently under evaluation. Five of the nine ongoing wells were completed in the first quarter 2009, and one of them has been announced as a discovery.