Denmark's Ministry of Environment & Energy has awarded nine exploration licenses covering 40 North Sea blocks.
The winners were seven groups involving 16 companies.
A ministry official said eased terms for this fourth offshore licensing round led to award of interests to companies that have not previously acquired Danish acreage.
Under the new terms, state participation through Dansk Olie & Gasproduktion AS (Dopas) continues at 20% at the outset of licenses, but the state no longer will increase its interest under "sliding scale" rules after commercial discoveries.
All the licenses carry an obligation to conduct seismic surveys, while six licenses carry a one well obligation and there are requirements for a further eight conditional wells.
Exploration spending under the new licenses is expected by the ministry to amount to 1.3 billion Danish kroner ($245 million), of which 600 million kroner ($110 million) is expected to be spent on drilling obligatory wells.
Groups led by Amerada Hess (Denmark) AS and Statoil Efterforskning & Produktion AS are thought likely to be contenders to drill the first well on the new acreage.
The ministry said several obligation wells are likely to be drilled in the first year of the licenses, while most of the drilling programs are likely to be completed in the first 3-4 years.
The nine licenses cover about 4,250 sq km out of a total 15,600 sq km offered under the fourth licensing round, opened last July.
"Licensees see potential for discoveries ranging from a few million barrels of oil equivalent to about 1.1 billion bbl of oil equivalent," the ministry said.
"For comparison, proved and possible reserves recoverable from fields and discoveries known today amount to 2.6 billion bbl of oil equivalent."
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