Wintershall is continuing its growth course in northern Europe: in the current licensing round APA 2012 (awards in pre-defined areas), the Norwegian petroleum and energy ministry has awarded three new licenses in the North Sea to the BASF subsidiary. Wintershall will be the operator for all three licenses.

Martin Bachmann, the member of the Wintershall Board of Executive Directors responsible for exploration and production, also sees this licensing awarding as confirmation of the company's strategy: 'We have invested a great deal in expanding our activities in Norway in the last few years - the result is our own exploration discoveries as well as the recent asset swap with Statoil, in which Wintershall has agreed to acquire shares in three producing fields.'

Wintershall now holds 43 licenses in Norway, 24 of these as operator. This doesn't include the new licenses yet, since the official awarding of the licenses will take place later this year. As such, the oil and gas company is one of the largest license-holders on the Norwegian Continental Shelf. "The Norwegian petroleum and energy ministry has assigned us three interesting licenses. We have set ourselves ambitious targets for 2013.

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