The Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy has received applications from 47 companies in connection with the application deadline for the 2012 Awards in Predefined Areas (APA 2012) on the Norwegian continental shelf.

The Ministry plans to award new production licenses under APA 2012 in January 2013.

“Exploration results in recent years have shown that there is still significant potential for discovering new resources, also in mature areas. This is reflected in the record interest shown by the oil companies in APA 2012,” says Minister of Petroleum and Energy Ola Borten Moe.

There has been strong interest in the APA licensing rounds in recent years, with many new production licenses being awarded and several large discoveries being made. This shows that mature areas on the Norwegian continental shelf remain of interest and represent substantial opportunities and value for Norway. The APA awards have given many new companies the opportunity to explore areas that have been available for exploration for several years. Most of the discoveries and opportunities in mature areas are too small to justify independent development. That is why discovering and extracting these resources before existing infrastructure connected to other fields is shut down is both necessary and good resource management.

Tags: Norwegian Continental Shelf