The Norwegian government confirmed Wednesday oil and gas reserves were discovered in a North Sea area not known previously to contain hydrocarbons.

The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate, the nation's energy regulator, said reserves were discovered in appraisal and wildcat, one drilled in an untapped area, near the existing Gina Krog field in the North Sea.

The NPD said the objective of the well was to prove and delineate the potential for commercial volumes of oil and natural gas. For the discovery as a whole, the regulator said it estimated the size of the discovery at between 35 million and 70 million cubic feet of oil equivalent, which would be an average 9.3 million barrels if the entire discovery existed as oil.

There was no comment on the discovery from Statoil, which serves as the operator of the program.

Norway is one of the leading European suppliers and producers of oil and natural gas. Oil and natural gas production from Norwegian basins increased in May, the last full month for which data are available, with oil output up 2.4 percent year-on-year.

NPD set a goal of adding 5 billion barrels of oil to national reserves. By 2019, operators expect to start production at the Johan Sverdrup field, the fifth largest discovery ever made on the Norwegian continental shelf.

Statoil said this week first steel was cut on part of the platform structures meant for the program. Production plans were submitted to the government for early-stage developments at the Gullfaks region in the North Sea, which Statoil said could add another 18 million barrels of oil equivalent to net Norwegian production.