Twenty-eight firms awarded stakes in Norway's APA 2019 bid round

Twenty-eight companies have been awarded production licenses on the Norwegian continental shelf as part of Norway's Awards in Predefined Areas (APA) 2019 licensing round. A total of 69 production licenses were on offer by Norway's Ministry of Petroleum and Energy to oil and gas firms – 33 in the North Sea, 23 in the Norwegian Sea, and 13 in the Barents Sea. The authorities assessed applications from a total of 33 companies through autumn 2019 (OGJ Online, Sept. 4, 2019).

Equinor was awarded 23 new production licenses comprising 14 solely-operated and nine partner-operated licenses. Eight production licenses are in the North Sea, eight are in the Norwegian Sea, and seven are in the Barents Sea. Earlier this year, Equinor was awarded five licenses in the UK North Sea by the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) – four as operator and one as partner.

Aker BP was awarded 15 licenses, Lundin took 12, Neptune Energy won 13, DNO received 10, and Var Energy took 17.