Our Arctic Neighbors: Norway offers more offshore Arctic blocks

The Norwegian government has expanded the areas available for oil and gas exploration activities in the Barents Sea and Norwegian Sea in its announcement of the Awards in Predefined Areas 2010, the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy said in a release Feb. 19. An additional 20 blocks are now available to the industry in the Barents Sea and another 43 blocks in the Norwegian Sea. These are mainly relinquished blocks where petroleum activities have previously taken place.

“Regular access to prospective acreage is key to ensuring further activity on the Norwegian shelf,” said Norway’s minister of petroleum and energy, Terje Riis-Johansen. “We are undertaking the largest extension of the predefined areas since the establishment of the APA in 2003. The extensions are in accord with the management plans. ... With this I hope we have laid a good foundation for new discoveries, new developments and new activities in the north.”

The APA is the annual licensing round for mature areas on the Norwegian continental shelf. Together with the numbered rounds, which focus on frontier areas, the APA rounds ensure that companies maintain focus on all open areas on the shelf, the ministry said. The mature areas are the most explored areas and have known geology, fewer technical challenges and well-developed or planned infrastructure. In mature areas companies can often use existing infrastructure, but must act before the infrastructure associated with other fields is shut down.

The deadline for submitting applications for the APA 2010 is Sept. 15. The awarding of new production licenses is scheduled to take place in late 2010 or early 2011.

—Sarah Hurst