Germany's Wintershall has made what it says could be a major oil discovery in the Danish North Sea, pending appraisal drilling.

Wintershall, the exploration arm of chemicals group BASF, said in a press release that it had found potentially 100 million barrels of recoverable oil in the Hibonite exploration well.

The well lies about 337km north of Den Helder in the Netherlands and 278km west of the Danish port Esbjerg.

The Hibonite prospect lies about 7km north of the Ravn field which was successfully appraised in 2009 with the Ravn-3 well.

"Preliminary resource estimates indicate potential oil in place of approximately 100 million barrels," Wintershall said, adding that there could be production cost benefits from its close proximity to the Ravn discovery.

Wintershall currently has no Danish offshore oil or gas production, though it operates three offshore licences.

It holds a 35% share in Hibonite. The partners in the licence are Bayerngas Petroleum Denmark (30%), Nordsoefonden (20%) and EWE Vertrieb (15%).

Wintershall, Germany's biggest internationally active oil and gas producer, is also exploring in the Norwegian, British, German and Danish North Sea areas.

It said this month that it expects a profit-boosting increase in production this year. Wintershall contributed 44% of BASF's earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) in 2012.