Norway's Ministry of Energy announced APA 2025 on 9 May 2025, encompassing the predefined areas with blocks in the Norwegian Sea, Norwegian Sea and Barents Sea.
Application Deadline
The deadline to apply for APA 2025 is 12:00 noon on Tuesday, 2 September 2025. Applicants are encouraged to submit in good time before the deadline. Awards are expected during the first quarter of 2026.
Available acreage
Since APA 2024, the predefined areas (APA acreage) have been expanded by 68 blocks in the Barents Sea and 8 blocks in the Norwegian 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 Norwegian Offshore Directorate'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.
Links
- Map in pdf: Predefined areas at announcement date
- Norwegian Offshore Directorate's interactive Factmap (updated from 9 May 2025)
- Open data included block coordinates for announced areas (updated from 9 May 2025)
- Award statistics (zip)
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 9th 2025. These areas can change during the application period. The Norwegian Offshore Directorate's interactive FactMaps contain daily updated information showing the current area available for application.
Source: Ministry of Energy
