APA 2012 – Record interest in mature areas on the Norwegian Continental Shelf

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.

“The government wants to maintain a stable level of exploration activity while also ensuring continued value creation and securing future state revenue streams from petroleum activities. Exploitation of the mature areas on the continental shelf is very important in this regard, and the APA system is our instrument for achieving this. I am therefore very glad to see that so many companies are showing interest in our mature areas on the Norwegian continental shelf,” continues Borten Moe.

The deadline for applications was 6 September. The companies which have applied for production licenses are:

A/S Norske Shell, Agora Oil & Gas AS, Bayerngas Norge AS, BG Norge AS, BP Norge AS, Bridge Energy Norge AS, Centrica Resources Norge AS, Chevron Norge AS, Concedo ASA, ConocoPhillips Scandinavia AS, Core Energy AS, Dana Petroleum Norway AS, Det norske oljeselskap ASA, Dong E&P Norge AS, E.ON Ruhrgas Norge AS, Edison International SpA, ENI Norge AS, EnQuest Norge AS, Explora Petroleum AS, ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Norway AS, Faroe Petroleum Norge AS, Fortis Petroleum Norway AS, GDF SUEZ E&P Norge AS, Idemitsu Petroleum Norge AS, LOTOS Exploration & Production Norge AS, Lundin Norway AS, Maersk Oil Norway AS, Marathon Petroleum Norge AS, Norske AEDC, North Energy ASA, Norwegian Energy Company ASA, OMV Norge AS, Petrolia Norway AS, PGNiG Norway AS, Premier Oil Norge AS, Repsol Exploration Norge AS, Rocksource ASA, RWE-Dea Norge AS, Skagen44 AS, Spring Energy Norway AS, Statoil Petroleum AS, Svenska Petroleum Exploration AS, Talisman Energy Norge A/S, TOTAL E&P Norge AS, Valiant Petroleum Plc, VNG Norge AS and Wintershall Norge ASA.

The government announced the APA 2012 on 29 March 2012. More information on the APA 2012 can be found in the press release APA 2012: Acreage announcement, which also includes a map of the announced areas.