The 18th Norwegian licensing round was one of the country's largest, offering 46 blocks in deepwater areas of the Norwegian Sea off the coast of mid-Norway and in the North Sea. The licensing round included frontier acreage with high potential and more explored areas with lower risks.

Norway has offered the following companies participation in production licenses (numbers in parenthesis): Statoil (9), Hydro (4), Shell (4), ENI (4), BG (2), Gaz de France (2), ChevronTexaco (2), RWE-Dea (2), Pertra (2), DONG (1), Amerada Hess (1), Paladin (1), Esso (1), Total (1), Idemitsu (1), and Revus (1).

The following companies have been offered operatorship (numbers in parenthesis): Statoil (4), Hydro (2), Shell (2), ENI (2), Total (1), Pertra (1), Paladin (1), Esso (1), ChevronTexaco (1), and RWE-Dea (1).

"There is an interesting mix of large established companies and smaller, relatively new actors," Einar Steensnæs, Norwegian Minister of Petroleum and Energy, said. "This award lays the foundation for an efficient exploration of large parts of the frontier acreage in the North Sea and the Norwegian Sea.

Some adjustments to the framework conditions have been made in this licensing round compared to the 17th licensing round. The rules for relinquishment are changed so that companies, upon the expiry of the initial period, can keep the areas where resources have been proven through drilling. The rest of the awarded acreage has to be relinquished. This is a continuation of the principles introduced in Awards in Pre-defined Areas 2003 (APA 2003) and will encourage rapid and efficient exploration of awarded acreage.

06/08/04