Norway awards 69 offshore production licenses

The Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy announced that offered 69 production licenses on the Norwegian continental shelf, to in total 28 oil and gas companies under the Award in Pre-Defined Areas 2019 (APA 2019). For the records, the first licensing round on the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS) took place back in 1965.

Namely, 33 of the licences are located in the North Sea, 23 in the Norwegian Sea and 13 in the Barents Sea.

I am proud to offer 69 new production licenses in this year’s APA round. The companies show great interest in further access to new exploration acreage. This means that the industry believes in future value creation on the Norwegian continental shelf.

…said Minister of Petroleum and Energy, Sylvi Listhaug.

Moreover, the APA licensing rounds cover the most explored areas on the Norwegian shelf while one of the primary challenges in mature areas is the expected decline in discovery size.

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Ranging from large international majors to smaller domestic exploration companies, the 28 different oil companies are offered ownership interests in one or more production licenses, while 19 of these will be offered operatorships.

The 2019 awards with new licences from the southern North Sea to the Barents Sea demonstrate the companies’ continued interest in the Norwegian Continental Shelf. Production licences are being offered both in the Barents Sea and the Norwegian Sea which will require new seismic data and use of new technology to evaluate the resource potential. It will be exciting to watch how this develops in the coming years.

…Torgeir Stordal, head of exploration at the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD), said.

Concluding, as the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy highlighted, hopefully the exploration in the awarded acreage will generate new discoveries. This is important to ensure employment, value-creation and future government revenue for Norway’s largest industry.

Number of licenses /operatorships: