Norway to Offer More Arctic Exploration Blocks

Thursday, March 14, 2019

Norway plans to expand the offshore oil and gas acreage offered to companies under its annual licensing round in so-called predefined areas (APA), oil minister Kjell-Boerge Freiberg said on Thursday.

The 2019 APA round will offer 90 new blocks, of which 48 are in the Arctic Barents Sea, 37 are in the Norwegian Sea and 5 in the North Sea, he said.

"It's important to maintain the positive development in exploration activity in the Barents Sea. I hope this will lead to robust field development solutions and increased value creation in the north," Freiberg said in a statement.

The annual APA rounds are primarily designed to offer new acreage that is located near existing or planned developments. They differ from Norway's other licensing rounds, which are held more rarely and offer blocks in unexplored, frontier regions.

Environmental groups and some opposition politicians, however, have criticised the government for its policy, arguing the APA rounds are used to expand exploration beyond mature areas of Norway's continental shelf.

Top explorers on the Norwegian continental shelf include Equinor, Aker BP and Lundin Petroleum , among others.


(Reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis, editing by Terje Solsvik and Susan Fenton)

Categories: Energy Geoscience Arctic Europe Government

Related Stories

Woodside and Jera Agree LNG Cargoes Supply for Japan’s Winter Period

Yinson Production Closes $1B Investment to Drive Further Growth

Petronas-Eni Upstream Joint Venture to Take Up to Two Years to Set Up

Chuditch Gas Field Drilling Ops Get Delayed to Next Year

UK Firm Secures Exploration Extension for Two Blocks off Vietnam

ABL Lands Work on BP’s Indonesian Gas and CCUS Project

TPAO, SOCAR and BP to Ink Caspian Sea Oil and Gas Production Deal

EnQuest Bags Two Production Sharing Contracts off Indonesia

VARD Snags $125M Shipbuilding Deal for Subsea Construction Vessel

Op-Ed: Kazakhstan’s National O&G Firm Positioning Itself as Global Energy Player

Current News

CNOOC Signs Hydrocarbons Exploration and Production Deal with Kazakhstan

Thailand's PTT to Buy LNG from Glenfarne's Alaska LNG Project

Woodside and Jera Agree LNG Cargoes Supply for Japan’s Winter Period

Petronas Expands Suriname Portfolio with Deepwater Block Acquisition

Japanese Oil and Gas Firm Enters Two Blocks off Malaysia

Yinson Production, “K” LINE Target Europe's CCS with FSIU and LCO2 Solutions

Woodside Agrees Long-Term LNG Supply with Petronas Unit

MODEC and Terra Drone Renew FPSO Drone Inspection Partnership

Yinson Production Closes $1B Investment to Drive Further Growth

Petronas-Eni Upstream Joint Venture to Take Up to Two Years to Set Up

Subscribe for AOG Digital E‑News

AOG Digital E-News is the subsea industry's largest circulation and most authoritative ENews Service, delivered to your Email three times per week

https://accounts.newwavemedia.com