The Norwegian Government has awarded 62 new offshore oil and gas production licences to 24 energy companies as part of its pre-defined areas 2023 (APA 2023) licensing round. 29 licenses were awarded in the North Sea, 25 in the Norwegian Sea, and 8 in the Barents Sea. Moreover, 16 of these production licenses are additional acreage for existing production licenses.
Among selected companies, Norway’s state-owned Equinor received 39 new licenses (including 14 operatorships), Aker BP received 27 licences (with 17 operatorships), Wintershall Dea Norway received 13 (5), PGNiG Upstream Norway received 10 (1), Neptune Energy received 4 (3) and ConocoPhillips received 3 (2). The APA 2023 offered more blocks than the previous year, when 47 licences were awarded to 25 firms.
Norway produced more than 128 bcm of natural gas and 91 Mt of crude oil in 2022. More than 90% of all oil production and NGL is exported. Exports are mostly directed to European markets (74% of the total in 2022) and China (15%). Norway in 2022 overtook Russia as Europe's biggest gas supplier as Moscow's invasion of Ukraine severed energy ties. The country also replaced some of the Russian oil barrels banned by the European Union.
Interested in Global Energy Research?
Enerdata's premium online information service provides up-to-date market reports on 110+ countries. The reports include valuable market data and analysis as well as a daily newsfeed, curated by our energy analysts, on the oil, gas, coal and power markets.
This user-friendly tool gives you the essentials about the domestic markets of your concern, including market structure, organisation, actors, projects and business perspectives.