Norway Offers Record Number of Offshore Licenses

On January 15, 33 companies were offered ownership interests in 83 production licenses on the Norwegian Shelf - the largest number ever awarded in one licensing round.

Of the 83 production licenses, 37 are in the North Sea, 32 in the Norwegian Sea and 14 in the Barents Sea. 18 of the licenses are additional acreage to existing production licenses.

Equinor was awarded 29 new licenses, 13 as operator and 16 as partner. Seven of the licenses are in the North Sea, 16 in the Norwegian Sea and six in the Barents Sea.

Lundin Petroleum was awarded 15 exploration licenses - the company's record-high award includes eight licenses in the North Sea, two in the Norwegian Sea and five in the southern Barents Sea. Nine of the licenses will be operated by Lundin Norway.

DEA was awarded nine licenses: four in the Norwegian Sea, three in the North Sea and two in the Barents Sea. DEA will be operator in three of the licenses.

The first licensing round on the NCS took place in 1965. The activity started in the North Sea, and exploration in the Norwegian Sea and the Barents Sea started around 15 years later. Thus, Norway will soon have more than 40 years of experience in the region. Today, approximately 170,000 people are directly or indirectly engaged in the petroleum sector.