Norway’s Ministry of Petroleum and Energy has awarded 47 latest offshore oil and gas exploration licences to a complete of 25 oil firms.
The permits have been awarded as a part of the licencing round APA 2022, an annual exploration round to licence in probably the most mature areas on the Norwegian shelf.
The licences offered in the most recent round cover 29 permits across the North Sea, with 16 within the Norwegian Sea and two within the Barents Sea.
Norwegian Minister of Petroleum and Energy Terje Aasland said: “Further exploration activity and latest discoveries are necessary to take care of the production of oil and gas over time, each for Norway and Europe.
“The annual allocation of the exploration area is a pillar in facilitating a stable level of activity on the Norwegian continental shelf and in achieving the predominant goals of the federal government’s petroleum policy.
“Today’s area allocation can also be a crucial contribution to making sure that Norway stays a protected and predictable supplier of oil and gas to Europe.”
Of those permits, Equinor has received the biggest variety of production licences, which incorporates 18 licences as operator and eight as partner.
The corporate is planning to take part in 25 exploration wells this yr.
Equinor Norway subsurface exploration and production senior vice-president Jez Avery said: “Exploration is important to our ambition to rework the NCS from an oil and gas province to a broad energy province. Recent gas volumes will probably be key to enabling the event of recent value chains for hydrogen for Europe.”
A few of the other firms that received the production licences within the predefined areas include Aker BP, AS Norske Shell, ConocoPhillips, Harbour, INPEX-Idemitsu, Neptune, Okea, OMV, PGNiG, TotalEnergies, and Wintershall Dea.