Statoil has increased its working interest in the Union-operated St. Malo development to 21.5% by exercising its preferential rights on a proposed sale of Devon's share in the development. Union is a subsidiary of Chevron.

St. Malo is scheduled to be sanctioned later this year together with the Chevron-operated Jack development. The combined Jack and St. Malo development is scheduled to come on stream in 2014.

"St. Malo is a major discovery in ultra-deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico, and we are pleased to strengthen our position in this development," said Øivind Reinertsen, heading up Statoil's upstream activities in the US.

"This is a new frontier for all oil companies, and I'm excited that Statoil is such a major player here," he added. "We bring in technology and extensive offshore expertise which we believe will benefit us and our partners in developing this play."

The Jack and St. Malo discoveries are both in the lower tertiary trend of the deepwater Gulf of Mexico, commonly known as the Paleogene play.

Statoil is the third largest leaseholder in these ultra-deep waters which include an additional two discoveries. Statoil is also currently engaged in two deepwater Gulf of Mexico drilling operations.

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