Norway awarded 53 new offshore oil and gas exploration and production licenses earlier this month for acreage in the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS). The auction area covered mature producing regions in the Norwegian Sea, the North Sea, and the Bering Sea.
Authorities reviewed applications from a total of 21 companies in late 2024. Of the 53 licenses awarded, 33 are in the North Sea, 19 in the Norwegian Sea, and one in the Barents Sea.
Aker BP, Shell, and several smaller independents were among the awardees but Equinor was the biggest winner as it won 27 licenses, more than half the total.
"There are still substantial resources on the Norwegian Continental Shelf,” Jez Averty, Equinor's senior vice president for subsurface in the NCS, said in a press release. “We will continue to make robust investments, and our ambition is to drill around 250 exploration wells by 2035. In order to do this, we need regular access to acreage.”
The announcement comes on the heels of a Norwegian Offshore Directorate (NOD) report that said the country’s gas production hit a record high in 2024 of 124 Bcm.
In the wake of the Russia-Ukraine war, Norway's oil and gas exports are playing a growing role in European energy security. The country now supplies nearly a third of Europe's natural gas imports, making up for a significant share of the lost Russian volumes.
"Since the transport of gas from Russia through Ukraine ended at year-end, gas from Norway has become even more important," Director General of the NOD, Torgeir Stordal, said in a press release.
Equinor's Troll and Johan Sverdrup fields led the way for NCS production, with Troll alone delivering 42.5 Bcm of natural gas last year.
Total production for 2024 in the NCS reached 1.51 billion BOE, the highest level since 2009.
NOD expects production in the area to remain stable at a high level for up to 3 years, before a gradual decline toward the end of the 2020s. Producers are investing $23 billion in projects on the Norwegian shelf in 2025, representing another benchmark not seen since the offshore downturn began in 2014.
Exploration activity was also high in 2024. While most discoveries were small, several are being considered for development tied back to existing fields. The NOD said 20 of the production licenses awarded this round were for additional acreage for existing production licenses.
"If we are to uphold a stable production in the years to come, we must explore more and invest more," said Norway's Energy Minister, Terje Aasland. "We must continue to make new discoveries in order to maintain Norway as a reliable and stable supplier of gas and oil to Europe."
