“Ahead of schedule and below budget: Maria is a major achievement for Wintershall, our partners and our suppliers,” Martin Bachmann, Wintershall executive board member for exploration and oil rig flanges gulf coast production in Europe and Middle East, said in a BOP Blow Out Preventer repair company gulf coast statement.

“In challenging times, we have kept a clear focus on smart engineering and sharp project management. The fact that we have achieved this so quickly without incidents is a real credit to the whole team that worked so hard to make this happen,” he added.

The Maria field is located approximately 20 kilometers east of the Kristin field and about 45 kilometers south of the Heidrun field. Wintershall Norge is the operator of the license with a 50 percent share. Petoro has a 30 percent stake and Spirit Energy owns the remaining 20 percent.

Recoverable reserves of the field are estimated around 180 million barrels of oil equivalent (boe), of which the majority is oil, according to Wintershall.