Norway Launches APA 2018 Round
Norway's petroleum and energy ministry announced May 9 the launch of its 'Awards in predefined areas 2018 (APA 2018) licensing round.
North Sea, Norwegian Sea and Barents Sea blocks are on offer. The deadline for applications is 12am Tuesday September 4 2018. Awards will be announced during 1Q2019.
APA rounds are held annually and offer mature acreage on the Norwegian continental shelf. In this APA 2018 round, an extension of the predefined area with a total of 103 blocks has been made: 47 of these are in the Norwegian Sea and 56 in the Barents Sea; the extension mainly comprises blocks west in the Norwegian Sea and east of the existing APA area of the Barents Sea.
Applications may be submitted for any blocks, or parts of blocks, within the predefined areas that are not already included in a licence three months before the closing date for application.
A definitive map of the fuller acreage in the predefined areas that will be included in APA 2018, including any areas relinquished in the meantime, will be available soon after June 4 2018. More details are available here. Under the APA 2017 round awards, announced January 2018, the ministry offered 75 new production licences to 34 companies.
Map credit: Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD)