Norway's Statoil has announced a major oil discovery in the Barents Sea that could contain up to 300 million barrels of oil.

Statoil, Norway's largest oil producer, announced the find in a statement Monday. It says the newly discovered deposit is in the Havis prospect , just seven kilometers from the Skrugard prospect, where oil was discovered in April 2011.

Statoil chief executive Helge Lund says the two prospects have opened up a new petroleum province in the north.

Both prospects are covered by the same production license, which is shared by Statoil, Italy's Eni and Norway's state-owned company, Petoro.