The Ministry of Petroleum and Energy announced APA 2023 on 10 May 2023, encompassing the predefined areas with blocks in the North Sea, Norwegian Sea and Barents Sea.
- Ministry of Petroleum and Energy press release (Norwegian only)
- Invitation to apply for production licences for petroleum
Application deadline
The deadline to apply for APA 2023 is 12:00 noon on Wednesday, 23 August 2023. Applicants are encouraged to submit in good time before the deadline. Awards are expected during the first quarter of 2024.
Available acreage
Since APA 2022, the predefined areas (APA acreage) have been expanded by 78 blocks in the Barents Sea and 14 blocks in the North Sea. Applications can be submitted for all available blocks or parts of blocks within the predefined areas. Blocks or parts of blocks that become available less than 3 months prior to the application deadline, cannot be applied for. That means that all acreage approved for relinquishment in the period up to three months prior to the application deadline is considered to be announced as of the application deadline. Relinquished area is included on a continuous basis in the predefined area on the NPD's interactive Factmap, and maps covering the final area that can be applied for will be provided as soon as practically possible. See links below.
Acreage that has been awarded to exploration or exploration license for storage of CO2 cannot be applied for in APA rounds.
Acreage that has been announced will be available for application in APA rounds,. If licences for CO2 storage are awarded before the application deadline in an APA round, this acreage will no longer be available for application in APA.
Blocks, or parts of blocks, that overlap with the proposal to change SVO Havområdene rundt Svalbard and the proposal to change SVO Tromsøflaket are being announced with certain reservations: If the geographical extent of the mentioned SVOs is changed by the Storting in its processing of the Management Plan in 2024, the current terms and conditions for petroleum activities in the two respective SVOs will also apply for any permits in relevant blocks awarded in APA 2023, cf. announced environmental, HSE, and fisheries requirements for the Barents Sea.
Map of area available for application in predefined areas as at the announcement date
The maps show licenced acreage within the APA boundaries as of May 10th, 2023. These areas can change during the application period. The NPD's interactive FactMaps contain daily updated information showing the current area available for application.
Links
- Map in pdf: Predefined areas at announcement date
- NPD's interactive Factmap (updated from 11.5.2023)
- Open data included block coordinates for announced areas (updated from 11.5.2023)
- Award statistics (shapefil)
Source: NPD
