Continued strong interest for mature areas on the Norwegian shelf

At the expiry of the deadline for the awards in predefined areas (APA) 2009 on the Norwegian continental shelf, the Norwegian Petroleum and Energy has received applications from 44 companies. The Ministry aims to award new production licenses in APA 2009 during the beginning of the year 2009/2010.
There has been considerable interest in the APA system in recent years, which has resulted in many new licenses. Much of the APA site is for the time allocated. In spite of this, it has also in the APA 2009 has attracted great interest from companies on the Norwegian continental shelf.

This shows that the mature areas on the Norwegian shelf are still interesting. Through the APA scheme has many new companies have been given the chance to look at areas that have been available for exploration for several years.
"It is positive that companies are looking with new eyes in the mature areas on the Norwegian continental shelf, which can be attributed to the great diversity on the shelf," said Oil andEnergy Minister Terje Riis-Johansen.

The purpose of the APA system is to encourage exploration activity in mature areas where in most cases expects to make smaller discoveries that can not justify an independent development.
It is therefore good resource to discover and exploit these resources before existing infrastructure in relation to other fields shut down.

The companies that have submitted applications are:
4Sea Energy, Norwegian Shell, Aker Exploration, Bayerngas Norway, BG-Norway, BP Norway, Bridge Energy, Centrica Resources Norway, Chevron Norway, Concedo, ConocoPhillips Scandinavia, Dana Petroleum Norway, the Norwegian oil company, Discover Petroleum, Dong E&P Norway, E.ON Ruhrgas Norway, Edison International Norway Branch, ENI Norway, ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Norway, Faroe Petroleum Norway, GdF Suez E&P Norway, Genesis Petroleum Norway, Idemitsu Petroleum Norway, Lotos Exploration and Production Norway, Lundin Norway, Marathon Petroleum Norway, Nexen Exploration Norway, North Energy, Norwegian Energy Company, OMV (Norway), Petro-Canada Norway, PGNiG Norway, Repsol Exploracion, Rocksource, RWE Dea Norway, Sagex Petroleum Norway, Skagen44, Skeie Energy, Spring Energy Norway, StatoilHydro Petroleum, Svenska Petroleum Exploration, Talisman Energy Norway, VNG Norway (Operations), Wintershall Norway.