Norway awards 57 drilling permits in offshore oil, gas exploration round

By Nora Buli and Nerijus Adomaitis

SANDEFJORD, Norway, Jan 13 (Reuters) - Norway's energy minister on Tuesday awarded stakes in 57 offshore oil and gas exploration licences to 19 companies in an annual licensing round, and said the country would further expand the acreage drilled over the coming year.

The allocation for mature areas rose from 53 licences awarded one year ago, while the number of oil and gas firms receiving the permits fell from 20, Energy Minister Terje Aasland told an energy conference.

Equinor EQNR.OL received the biggest award with 17 operatorships, followed by Aker BP AKRBP.OL with 12 and Vaar Energi, a unit of Italy's Eni ENI.MI receiving six.

STRATEGY TO EXTEND OIL, GAS PRODUCTION

The annual predefined area (APA) rounds of new offshore exploration acreage are central to Norway's strategy of extending oil and gas production for decades to come although activity is set to decrease in the coming years.

"Norway is Europe's most important energy supplier, but in a few years production will begin to decline. Therefore, we need new projects that can slow the decline and deliver as much production as possible," Aasland said.

Other companies receiving operatorships included DNO DNO.OL, ConocoPhillips COP.N, Inpex 1605.T, Okea OKEA.OL, OMV OMVV.VI and Wellesley Petroleum.

The policy is fiercely opposed by the Green Party and by environmental groups which protested outside of the conference venue.

FURTHER EXPANSION NEXT YEAR

The government will also immediately begin work on next year's mature areas allocation, expanding the acreage eligible for awards by another 70 blocks, including 38 in the Barents Sea, the ministry said.

But a planned licensing round for so-called frontier regions, the 26th since Norway first discovered oil in the 1960s and the first since 2021, was postponed while more preparations are made, it said said.

Acreage that had been proposed by oil firms for the 26th round will, meanwhile, be eligible for award in next year's mature areas awards, it added.

The latest round awarded 31 licences in the North Sea, down from 33 a year ago. Another 21 licences were awarded in the Norwegian Sea, up from 19 permits a year ago, while 5 licences were awarded in the Barents Sea, up from one a year ago.