21 oil and gas companies are bidding for new exploration areas in Norway

Norway’s latest round of licenses for new acreage in the best-explored areas of the shelf has attracted bids from 21 oil and gas companies, Norway’s Energy Ministry said on Friday.

Norway holds an annual round of licenses for exploration acreage in the most known and mature areas on the Norwegian Continental Shelf – the so-called Predefined Area Award (APA) rounds. After more than 50 years of exploration activity, APA rounds now cover most of the area that has been opened to drilling and is available on the shelf.

This year, the energy ministry of Western Europe’s biggest oil and gas producer said at the launch of the bidding round in May that it was expanding the acreage in the Barents Sea and Norwegian Sea for which companies competing for licenses in mature areas can bid .

The APA round included a further 37 blocks – three in the northwestern Norwegian Sea and 34 blocks in the eastern Barents Sea.

By the end of the September 3 deadline, the Energy Ministry had received applications from 21 companies, including Norwegian major Equinor and local units of ConocoPhillips, Repsol, TotalEnergies, Shell and OMV, among others.

After reviewing the applications, the energy ministry will now aim to grant new production licenses in the announced areas in early 2025.

The applications confirm considerable interest in exploration near existing fields and infrastructure, the Norwegian Offshore Directorate said.

Commenting on the interest in the exploration round, Norwegian Energy’s Terje Aasland said:

“It is very gratifying that companies still have great confidence in the opportunities that lie in continued exploration on the Norwegian continental shelf.”

Additional exploration efforts and new discoveries would be crucial to slow the expected decline in Norway’s oil and gas production in the 2030s, the minister said, adding that additional resources in Norway would make an important contribution to Europe’s energy security.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

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