A record number of oil companies have applied for production licenses in mature areas offshore Norway, the country's Ministry of Petroleum and Energy said Friday.
A record number of oil companies have applied for production licenses in
mature areas offshore
Norway
, the
country's Ministry of Petroleum and Energy said Friday.
By the Sept. 6 deadline, some 47 companies had applied for 2012 awards of
production licenses in so-called predefined areas on the Norwegian continental
shelf, the ministry said. The number of applications was the same as in the
record year 2008 and three new companies had applied in 2012, according to the
Norwegian Petroleum Directorate.
High oil prices, currently at $114 per barrel, have contributed significantly
to the level of exploration activity offshore Norway in recent years, the
directorate said, and the number of applications showed that companies still
had "considerable interest" in further exploration of predefined
areas in the North Sea, the Norwegian Sea and the Barents Sea.
Norway
's
total oil and gas investments are currently at a record high, and are expected
to set a new record 204 billion kroner ($35 billion) in 2013, Statistics Norway
said Thursday.
The Ministry of Petroleum and Energy said it expected to award the new
predefined area licenses in January 2013.
"Exploration results in recent years have shown that there is still
significant potential for discovering new resources, also in mature
areas," said
Norway
's
Minister of Petroleum and Energy Ola Borten Moe in a press release.
The most striking example of that potential is the Johan Sverdrup discovery,
estimated to contain at least 1.8 billion barrels of oil equivalent, which was
discovered in 2010 in the
North Sea
, a
mature area which had been thoroughly explored for several decades.
Norway
's
awards of licenses in pre-defined areas have given many new companies the
opportunity to explore mature areas, leading to several new discoveries.
"There is great interest among the oil companies," said Sissel
Eriksen, director for exploration at the Petroleum Directorate. "We see
that there is competition for acreage that has been awarded and relinquished
several times previously."
Small discoveries can be developed faster and more profitable in mature areas
than in less mature areas, because they can be connected to existing
infrastructure, the directorate said.
"The government wants to maintain a stable level of exploration activity
while also ensuring continued value creation and securing future state revenue
streams from petroleum activities," said Mr. Moe.
Among the companies seeking licenses were Statoil ASA (STO), Royal Dutch Shell
PLC (RDSB), Centrica PLC (CNA.LN), ConocoPhilips (COP), Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM),
BP PLC (BP), GDF Suez SA (GSZ.FR), Lundin Petroleum AB (LUPE.SK), Total SA
(TOT), Eni SpA (E) and Wintershall AG.
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