THE Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy has offered 38 production licences in its APA (Awards in Predefined Areas) 2009 licensing round, which is focused on mature areas of the Norwegian Continental Shelf.
Terje Riis-Johansen, minister of petroleum and energy, said in a statement that 42 companies had been offered the licences, of which 19 were offered operatorships.
The 38 production licences are distributed among the North Sea (25), the Norwegian Sea (10) and the Barents Sea (3). A total of 44 companies applied for production licences in APA 2009.
“The industry’s continuing interest for these areas indicates that the annual licensing rounds in mature areas work in accordance with the purpose of an efficient exploration of the mature areas,” said Riis-Johansen
“Offers are given to large, medium-sized and small companies. This illustrates the diversity of companies on the Norwegian Continental Shelf.”
Statoil and DNO were each offered six operatorships; Lundin was offered four; Marathon and Wintershall were each offered three, while Norwegian Energy Company and OMV were each offered two. Solus operatorships were offered to Shell, Bridge Energy, Centrica, ConocoPhillips, Dana Petroleum, DONG, E.ON Ruhrgas, GDF Suez, Lotos, Nexen, Repsol and Rocksource. Among those offered non-operated licences were BP, BG, Faroe Petroleum, ExxonMobil and Talisman.
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