The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) said on Tuesday that its latest estimates show that the undiscovered oil and gas resources in the Barents Sea are twice as large as previously thought, drawing criticism from green groups over potential opening up of drilling in sensitive iced areas. The NPD has recently mapped the eastern part of the northern Barents Sea, a large part of which is located in the previously disputed area, “and most of the new information has been collected after the demarcation line agreement with Russia entered into force in the summer of 2011,” the Norwegian oil regulator said. A large part of the resources in the new area—which are estimated at 1.4 billion standard cubic meters of oil equivalents—are not open for drilling, according to the NPD. The Barents Sea could hold a total of 2.8 billion standard cubic meters of oil equivalents, equal to 17.6 billion […]