In the 2025 awards in pre-defined areas (APA), 19 companies have been offered ownership interests in a total of 57 production licences on the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS).
The authorities reviewed applications from a total of 19 companies in autumn 2025. Of these 57 production licences, 31 are in the North Sea, 21 in the Norwegian Sea and 5 in the Barents Sea. 20 of the production licences are additional acreage for existing production licences.
'This year's awards show that the companies still see the potential for profitable exploration in mature areas. Resources proven near established installations will be crucial to ensure high value creation and effective utilisation of infrastructure moving forward', says Kalmar Ildstad, Director of regulations, licence and area management at the Norwegian Offshore Directorate.
'It's also encouraging that several companies have submitted applications to conduct new assessments of discoveries with tight reservoirs, where production has so far been deemed unlikely,' he adds.
APA dashboard provides good overview
The Norwegian Offshore Directorate offers a dashboard that shows acreage, work programmes and companies with associated ownership interests and roles.
About the dashboard:
- GIS interfaces (Esri platform). Offered acreage is shown in interactive maps.
- FactMaps are included as layers in maps.
- User-friendly:
- Provides a quick and easy overview of all offered production licenses.
- Search functionality – for example, you can quickly gain an overview of which production licences a company has been offered
- The map makes it easy to identify additional acreage by highlighting the mother licence. There is also a link to the FactPages for the mother licence
- Users can easily download data for import into their own GIS solutions.
Everything you need to know about APA 2025
Source: Norwegian Offshore Directorship
