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Norway launches new exploration round

Oil&Gas Materials 21 April 2015 21:14 (UTC +04:00)
Norway has launched its oil and gas licensing round for mature areas including blocks near recently discovered reservoirs.
Norway launches new exploration round

Norway has launched its oil and gas licensing round for mature areas including blocks near recently discovered reservoirs, Press TV reported.

Norway's Ministry of Petroleum and Energy started the offers on Tuesday in the hope of gaining additional resources to make developments more profitable in the future.

The biggest energy producer in Western Europe is offering license for the development of new blocks near Statoil's Aasta Hansteen gas field, Lundin Petroleum's Alta and Gohta finds as well as blocks near the smaller Pil and Bue discoveries.

Norway offers blocks that either were not taken in previous rounds or handed back.

In its last year's licensing round for mature areas, Norway handed out 54 licenses to 42 companies. Despite crashing oil prices, demand from explorers remained high in 2014, thanks to government subsidies for exploration.

In addition to handing out licenses for free, Norway subsidizes both exploration and development costs. But it levies a 78 percent tax on production.

The deadline for oil firms to apply is set for September 2. The Norwegian government plans to hand out the blocks early next year.

"The expansion of the [Awards in Predefined Areas] APA-area in the Norwegian Sea and in the Barents Sea in APA 2015 opens up for effective exploration of the areas near several discoveries and close to the Aasta Hansteen-field," Norwegian Energy Minister Tord Lien said.

"This is good resource management, and will be important for the activity-level and the value-creation, especially in the northern region," he added.

In January, the Norwegian oil ministry launched its 23rd licensing round, which comprises 57 blocks, in a bid to open up new areas to exploration.

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