Norway awards 62 offshore oil and gas blocs

Oslo, Norway – A total of 24 companies have been offered ownership shares in 62 production licenses on the Norwegian shelf in awards in pre-defined areas (APA) in 2023, the Norwegian Offshore Directorate announced on Tuesday.

The directorate said that this represents an expansion compared with the three previous years.

The count of fresh drilling licenses granted in the North Sea last year remained steady at 29 compared to the previous year, while 25 were authorised for the Norwegian Sea, a notable increase from the 16 issued the prior year.

The authorities reviewed applications from a total of 25 companies in the autumn of last year.

The directorate noted that of these 62 production licenses, 29 are located in the North Sea, 25 in the Norwegian Sea, and eight in the Barents Sea, while 16 of the production licenses are for additional acreage of existing production licenses.

“We can see that the companies still have plenty of faith in making more discoveries in areas with familiar geology and close to existing infrastructure. It's important to prove resources so that available capacity in established process plants and pipeline systems can be utilised. This means that even small discoveries can yield significant value creation,” said the director of license management in the Norwegian Offshore Directorate, Kalmar Ildstad.

In 2022, Norway surpassed Russia to become the largest gas provider in Europe, following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, which disrupted longstanding energy connections.

The Nordic nation’s supplies substituted for Russian gas exports that were prohibited by the European Union.