Thirty firms awarded stakes in Norway's APA 2020 bid round

Thirty companies have been awarded production licenses on the Norwegian continental shelf as part of Norway's Awards in Predefined Areas (APA) 2020 licensing round. Of these, 18 companies will be offered one or more operatorships. A total of 61 production licenses were on offer by Norway's Ministry of Petroleum and Energy to oil and gas firms – 34 in the North Sea, 24 in the Norwegian Sea, and 3 in the Barents Sea. Twelve of the production licenses are additional acreage to existing production licenses.

The authorities assessed applications from a total of 33 companies through autumn 2020.

Equinor was awarded 17 new production licenses—10 as operator and seven as partner. Eight of the licenses are in the North Sea and nine are in the Norwegian Sea.

Neptune Energy has been awarded six licenses—four in the Norwegian North Sea and two in the Norwegian Sea. In three of the licenses Neptune has been awarded operatorship.

DNO ASA subsidiary DNO Norge AS was awarded participation in 10 exploration licenses, of which four are operatorships. Of the new licenses, six are in the North Sea and four in the Norwegian Sea.

Some of the larger awards went to Aker BP with 10 licenses (8 as operator), Lundin with 19 (seven as operator), Wintershall DEA with 16 (four as operator), and Vår Energi with 10 (five as operator).

Other awards were (Number of licenses /operatorships):