Norway’s Ministry of Petroleum and Energy revealed that it has received applications from 25 companies for the 2023 Predefined Area Awards (APA) licensing round.
In a statement posted on its website, the ministry said it does not publish the total number of applications “for competition reasons”. The applicants included A/S Norske Shell, ConocoPhillips Skandinavia AS, Equinor Energy AS, TotalEnergies EP Norge AS and Harbor Energy Norge AS, the ministry revealed. A full list of applicants can be seen below, as described on the ministry’s website.
- A/S Norwegian Shell
- Aker BP ASA
- I grant AS
- ConocoPhillips Scandinavia AS
- DNO Norge AS
- Equinor Energy AS
- Harbor Energy Norge AS
- INPEX Idemitsu Norge AS
- KUFPEC Norway AS
- Lime Petroleum AS
- Tall ship JAPEX Norge AS
- M Vest Energy AS
- Neptune Energy Norway AS
- DIFFERENT EARTH
- OMV (Norway) AS
- Pandion Energy AS
- NOCO AS oil
- PGNiG Upstream Norway AS
- Repsol Norway AS
- AS power source
- Sval Energi AS
- TotalEnergies EP Norge AS
- Vår Energi ASA
- Wellesley Petroleum AS
- Wintershall Dea Norge AS
“We have received a large number of requests from companies active on the Norwegian continental shelf to search for new oil resources in the announced areas,” Norwegian Petroleum and Energy Minister Terje Aasland said in a government statement.
“Without exploration and new discoveries, we will not be able to sustain oil and gas production over time or further develop the oil sector and all jobs in the industry,” added Aasland.
“That the oil companies show such great interest in the award of new production and exploration licenses on the Norwegian continental shelf is therefore very good,” continued the minister.
In a statement published on its website, the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) stated that almost all companies that are active on the Norwegian platform have submitted applications to this year’s APA.
“It is gratifying to note the continued significant interest in investigating new exploration acreage among almost all companies active on the Norwegian Continental Shelf, and that we see increasing interest in the Barents Sea this year,” Kalmar Ildstad, director of license management at the NPD, said in a statement from the organization.
The NPD said in its statement that work is now beginning to assess the applications, “with a focus on geological understanding and plans to explore the areas”.
“When granting production licenses, emphasis is also placed on the companies’ technical expertise and experience, as well as their financial strength,” the NPD statement added.
Authorities plan to announce which companies will be offered shares in the 2023 APA in early 2024, the NPD statement revealed.
The APA is the annual licensing round for the most well-known exploration areas on the Norwegian platform, the ministry’s statement noted, adding that it comprises most of the available exploration areas.
The APA area is being expanded as geological knowledge increases in areas of the Norwegian shelf, the ministry said in the statement, which highlighted that, in this year’s licensing round, the predefined area is expanded to the North Sea and the Barents Sea.
Annual APA licensing rounds were introduced in 2003, the ministry statement noted. The goal was to better facilitate the identification and extraction of profitable resources in mature areas before existing infrastructure shuts down, the statement said.
APA 2023 was announced on May 10. In a statement published today on the ministry’s website, which was translated from Norwegian, Aasland said that “the annual exploration surface allocation is part of the good, predictable and stable framework conditions we have in Norway.” .
“Therefore, we are also facilitating more activity and value creation in northern Norway,” Aasland added in the statement.
In another statement posted on the ministry’s website in January, the ministry revealed that it had submitted a proposal for the announcement of the 2023 APA licensing round for public consultation.
“We constantly need new discoveries to further develop the Norwegian continental shelf. So today, I started the annual licensing round where we offer exploration areas to oil companies,” Aasland said in the statement.
“The tender proposal that has been submitted for consultation includes adding 92 blocks to the APA area in the north. Facilitating new discoveries in the North is important both for Europe, for Norway and for the region,” added Aasland.
“We will continue with the responsible and long-term management of oil and gas resources. Continuing the annual licensing rounds is a pillar of our oil policy,” continued Aasland.
Also in January, the ministry revealed it had offered 47 new production licenses on the Norwegian continental shelf in the APA 2022 licensing round.
These 47 production licenses were distributed in the North Sea (29), the Norwegian Sea (16) and the Barents Sea (2), the ministry highlighted in a statement published on its website. A total of 25 different oil companies were offered shares in one or more of these licenses and twelve companies were offered one or more operations, the statement highlights.
A full list of companies that were offered shares/operations for APA 2022, as described in the ministry’s statement, can be seen below.
- Aker BP (17/9)
- AS Norske Shell (1/0)
- I agree (1/0)
- I know Phillips (2/1)
- LOWER (11/1)
- Equinor (26/18)
- Port (3/1)
- INPEX-Idemitsu (3/0)
- Kufpec (1/0)
- Lime (2/0)
- Longboat (3/0)
- Lotus (1/0)
- Vest M (1/0)
- Neptune (2/1)
- OK (4/2)
- OMV (4/2)
- Pandión (2/0)
- NOCO Petroleum (1/1)
- PGNiG (3/0)
- Source (1/0)
- Muscle (4/0)
- TotalEnergies (4/0)
- Our energy (12/5)
- Wellesley (4/3)
- Wintershall Goddess (3/11)
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