Norway granted 83 blocks to explore for petroleum resources in the Norwegian continental shelf. The number of the blocks offered is a record, something that indicates a rising interest from oil companies in Norway’s oil sector.
A lack of large discoveries on the Norwegian continental shelf has raised concerns that Norway’s oil sector could be declining. For this reason, the government aspires that more licenses could lead to more activity.
[smlsubform prepend=”GET THE SAFETY4SEA IN YOUR INBOX!” showname=false emailtxt=”” emailholder=”Enter your email address” showsubmit=true submittxt=”Submit” jsthanks=false thankyou=”Thank you for subscribing to our mailing list”]
Namely, 38 oil companies submitted bids for acreage offshore Norway in the predefined areas (APA) licensing round by last September’s application deadline.
Norway, granted 37 licenses in the North Sea, 32 in the Norwegian Sea and 14 in the Barents Sea. In total, 21 oil firms received operatorships.
Of them, Equinor received the majority, with 13, while Aker BP and Lunding received 11 and 9 operatorships respectively.
In addition, DNO and Faroe Petroleum together won 9 operatorships, with DEA and Wintershall, after agreeing to merge, receiving a combined of five operatorships, Reuters reports.
The other companies that received operatorships include Total, Shell and ConocoPhillips, as well as Eni’s subsidiary Vaar Energy.
Norway announced the round last May, and expanded the pre-defined areas near the existing discoveries by 103 blocks.
