Oslo has awarded 38 production licences to a total of 42 oil companies, 19 of which have been offered operatorships - according to reports from the Norway's Ministry of Petroleum and Energy. The production licences were awarded as part of the Awards in Predefined Areas (APA) 2009 tender, the seventh licensing round to focus upon mature areas. Of the 38 licences awarded, 25 are located in the North Sea, 10 in the Norwegian Sea and the remaining three in the Barents Sea. The success of the licensing round underlines the ongoing interest by a number of large oil firms - including international majors -in the nation's mature offshore acreage, where oil and gas has already been explored for or produced. A statement from the Ministry read: 'The main challenge in mature areas is that the expected sizes of discoveries are declining.'
A total of 44 companies entered the recent bidding round. The winners were as follows: Norway's Det Norske Oljeselskap received nine licences, including six operatorships; state-owned Statoil was awarded participation in eight licenses, including operatorship over six. This was closely followed by Sweden's Lundin Norway, which will participate in seven licences and hold operatorship over four. Dana Petroleum Norway will also participate in nine licences; however, it will only hold operatorship over one of the nine. ExxonMobil Exploration & Production Norway was awarded participation in four licences; Norske Shell received operatorship over just one solitary licence. Additional licences were also awarded to Chevron Norge, ConocoPhillips, Eni Norge, Marathon Petroleum Norge, GDF Suez E&P Norge, Centrica Resources (Norge), E.ON Ruhrgas Norge, OMV (Norge), Talisman and RWE Dea Norge.
Looking forward, the Norwegian government has been announced that some 43 oil firms have participated in nominating blocks for inclusion in Norway's upcoming 21st licensing round. This falls only slightly south of the 46 companies that submitted nominations for the 20th licensing round. Norway's oil minister, Terje Riis-Johansen, commented that 'interest in the nominations has been great'. Nominations include those from industry majors: Shell, Chevron, Statoil, Total, Talisman and DONG Energy. The next step in the process is for the nominated blocks to be evaluated. Subsequently, public hearings will be held before the government takes a final decision on which blocks are to be included in the 21st bidding round.
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