Norway initiates new licencing round

Norway

OSLO, August 29, 2016 – Norway is launching preparation works for the country’s 24th ordinary licencing round after awarding 10 frontier blocks in the Barents Sea in May 2016, the government announced this morning.

Upstream players are invited to nominate the blocks they would like to see offered in all opened offshore areas in the Norwegian Sea and the Barents Sea not covered by annual awards in pre-defined areas rounds.

North Sea licences are only awarded through a pre-defined areas round and will therefore not be included in this new licencing round. This round will also exclude the waters off the Lofoten, Vesteraalen and Senja islands, despite industry calls to open these areas for exploration.

The government will review block nominations and announce the areas on offer before the end of Q2 2017. Licences are expected to be awarded by mid-2018.