The Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy announced offering of 75 production licenses on the Norwegian continental shelf in the Award in Pre-Defined Areas 2017 (APA 2017) licensing round, the highest ever awarded in a licensing round in the area.
The 75 exploration licenses are distributed over the North Sea (45), the Norwegian Sea (22) and the Barents Sea (8). 34 different oil companies, ranging from the large international majors down to the small domestic exploration companies, are awarded ownership interests in one or more production license. 19 of these companies will be offered one or more operatorships. The licenses are awarded with work-programme commitments.
“With this award, we maintain a predictable and high level of exploration acreage awards to a broad range of oil companies. Our licensing policy enables the oil companies in making the discoveries we need to create future activity and employment opportunities, achieve effective resource management, high value creation and the financing of the welfare state,” says Minister of Petroleum and Energy, Mr. Terje Søviknes.
Norwegian oil major Statoil said it has been offered interests in 31 exploration licences on the Norwegian continental shelf, 17 of these as operator, and 14 as a partner, the Norwegian DNO secured 10 exploration licenses, and the Hamburg-based DEA five. Oil and gas giants Shell, Total, ExxonMobil, as well as ConocoPhillips and Lundin Petroleum, were among those awarded acreage.
The APA licensing rounds cover the most explored areas on the Norwegian shelf. As explained, one of the primary challenges in mature areas is the expected decline in discovery size. Minor discoveries will not be able to carry standalone developments, but may have good profitability when they can exploit existing and planned processing equipment and transportation systems, or be seen in context with other discoveries or planned developments. Timely discovery and exploitation of such resources is therefore important, the Ministry noted.
Earlier in 2017, environmental groups Greenpeace and Nature and Youth, has sued the Norwegian government in an attempt to restrain oil drilling in Norway’s Arctic waters, stressing that its acts were unconstitutional and did not comply with the Paris Agreement. However, Oslo District Court decided in favour of Norway’s government in early January.
