Norway's Ministry of Petroleum and Energy received applications from 33 oil companies during this year's licensing round for the best-known areas on the Norwegian Continental Shelf.
"This shows that there is a high interest from the companies, and that they want to contribute to long-term value creation on the Norwegian Continental Shelf," Norwegian Minister of Petroleum and Energy Kjell Børge Freiberg said in a Sept. 4 news release.
The licensing round, called Awards in Predefined Areas, is held annually and includes all available exploration acreage. For this year's licensing round, the predefined area for both the Norwegian Sea and the Barents Sea were expanded.
The producers that applied include Aker BP ASA; ConocoPhillips subsidiary ConocoPhillips Skandinavia AS; Equinor ASA unit Equinor Energy AS; PJSC Lukoil subsidiary Lukoil Overseas North Shelf AS; Lundin Petroleum AB unit Lundin Norway AS; OMV AG subsidiary OMV (Norge) AS; Polskie Górnictwo Naftowe i Gazownictwo SA unit PGNiG Upstream Norway AS; Repsol SA subsidiary Repsol Norge AS; Suncor Energy Inc. unit Suncor Energy Norge AS; and Total SA subsidiary Total E&P Norge AS.
The ministry aims to award the production licenses in early 2020.
