Energy giant Repsol has found the largest onshore U.S. oil find in 30 years.

Oil exploration that started in 2008 has paid off for Spanish oil company Repsol and its U.S. partner, Armstrong Energy. Roughly 1.2 billion barrels of light crude are available in Alaska’s North Slope and ready to come up in 2021.

“The successive [exploration] campaigns in the area have added significant new potential to what was previously viewed as a mature basin,” the company said in a statement posted to its website on Friday. “Additionally Alaska has significant infrastructure which allows new resources to be developed more efficiently. […] Preliminary development concepts for Pikka anticipate first production there from 2021, with a potential rate approaching 120,000 barrels of oil per day.”

Denver-based Armstrong is said to own 75 percent of the oil in a well called Horseshoe. It has a 51 percent stake in another unit called Pikka.

Alaska Gov. Bill Walker touted the discovery in a statement released Friday.

“This is also great news for the State of Alaska,” Mr. Walker. “We must all pull together to fill an oil pipeline that’s three-quarters empty.”

Repsol spokesman Kristian Rix told CNNMoney that the find was even more significant because the region, in terms of producing energy, was thought to be “on its last legs.”

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