Cape Town (Platts)--21Dec2012/908 am EST/1408 GMT

Norway's Statoil and partner ExxonMobil have made a third gas discovery offshore Tanzania, Statoil said Friday.

The well in block 2 is part of a four-well drilling program. The next well will be the appraisal of Zafarani discovery, Statoil said. The company said it would announce updated total volumes in block 2 next year.

"These three discoveries continue to support our confidence in the Block 2 potential in Tanzania. The Lavani-2 well tested the deeper Saffron target and this new discovery looks promising," senior vice president in Exploration International, Nick Maden, said.

Statoil is operator of block 2 with 65% working interest; ExxonMobil holds the remaining 35%.

Statoil was awarded the block 2 license in 2007.

--Jacinta Moran, jacinta_moran@platts.com --Edited by Jeremy Lovell, jeremy_lovell@platts.com