Nineteen companies offered offshore licenses under latest Norwegian exploration round

Norway’s Ministry of Energy has offered 57 new production licenses across the North Sea, Norwegian Sea and Barents Sea to 19 companies under the country’s APA 2025 licensing round.

Terje Aasland, Energy Miniser, said: “Norway is Europe’s most important energy supplier, but in a few years, production will begin to decline. Therefore, we need new projects that can slow the decline and deliver as much production as possible.”

The annual Awards in Predefined Areas (APA) exploration round covers much of the already opened, available acreage on the Norwegian continental shelf.

Of the 57 licenses offered this time, 31 are in the North Sea, 21 in the Norwegian Sea, and five in the Barents Sea. Twenty represent additional acreage adjoining existing production licenses.

Thirteen of the successful bidders have secured one or more operatorship.

Equinor

Among the companies that have commented on their haul, Equinor led the way as usual, with 35 new production licenses. Averty, the company’s svp for subsurface, the Norwegian continental shelf, said these would support its plans for a sustained high level of exploration activity.

Last year the company participated in 14 discoveries, seven as operator, with combined recoverable resources currently estimated at 125 MMboe.

“Awards in lesser-known areas, such as we have received in the northeastern part of the North Sea and in the southwestern Møre Basin, provide new and exciting opportunities,” he added.

The company’s forward plan involves drilling 20-30 exploration wells annually, with 80% of the activity on prospects close to existing infrastructure. The focus for the remaining 20% will be on exploring new concepts and lesser-known areas.

Equinor needs further commercial successes to achieve its target of developing six to eight new subsea developments/yr through 2035.

Aker BP

Another Norwegian major, Aker BP, secured interests in 22 exploration licenses, 12 as operator. Some of the operatorships concern licenses with gas discoveries in tight reservoirs that have proven difficult to commercialise, i.e. Victoria and Warka in the Norwegian Sea, and Norvarg and Ververis in the Barents Sea.

Overall, the company commented, the new portfolio provides a balanced mix of opportunities close to existing infrastructure and prospects in less explored areas. Aker BP’s work commitments include two exploration wells and new seismic data acquisition.

Vår Energi

Vår Energi gained 14 new production licenses, six of which are as operator, and most are close to established infrastructure and therefore supporting the company’s hub strategy. 

The company has been offered four licenses in the North Sea, six licenses in the Norwegian Sea and four licenses in the Barents Sea.

OKEA

OKEA has offers for three new licenses, one as operator of PL 1305 on the Nordland Ridge north of the Draugen field and Mistral discovery on the Halten Terrace in the Norwegian Sea.

The other two, PLs 1255 B and 1293, are close to the Aurora discovery in the Gjøa field in the North Sea.

DNO

DNO will participate in 17 new exploration licenses, four as operator and located in its core E&P areas, said executive chairman Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani. “Over the last three years, DNO has logged a commercial success rate of over 5% in its exploration program in Norway with 12 discoveries out of 22 wells drilled.”

The full list of license recipients (participation/operatorships) is as follows:

• Aker BP (22/12)
• Concedo (2/1)
• ConocoPhillips Skandinavia (1/1)
• DNO Norge (17/4)
• Equinor Energy (35/17)
• Harbour Energy Norge (9/4)
• INPEX Idemitsu Norge (5/1)
• Japex Norge (2/0)
• Lime Petroleum (1/0)
• OKEA (3/1)
• OMV (Norge) (4/2)
• Orlen Upstream Norway (6/0)
• Pandion Energy Norge (1/0)
• Petrolia NOCO (1/1)
• Repsol (2/2)
• Source Energy (2/0)
• TotalEnergies EP Norge (1/0)
• Vår Energi (14/6)
• Wellesley Petroleum (5/5)

View a map of the offered production licenses in APA 2025.