APA 2012 - Awards

Today, 8 February 2012, the King in a session of the Council of State formally awarded 51 production licenses in the Awards in Predefined Areas (APA) 2012.

The governments offer was 51 production licenses, and today’s award is the same as the offer made on the 15th of January 2013.

The 51 production licences are distributed among the North Sea (34), the Norwegian Sea (14) and the Barents Sea (3). In total, 47 companies applied for production licences in APA 2012. Forty different companies will be offered shares in one or more production licences. Twenty-three of these companies will be offered operatorships.

The APA licensing round encompasses mature areas on the Norwegian continental shelf. These are the most explored parts of the shelf, and their geology is known. In mature areas, the expected size of discoveries is smaller, although recent years have shown that positive surprises can still happen. Small discoveries do not justify independent development, but may be profitable if they can utilise previously installed processing equipment and transportation systems or be coordinated with other planned developments. It is therefore important to ensure optimal timing of such discoveries and extraction.

Read more in the press release published on the 15th of January 2013.