Offers will be issued to 43 companies for 54 new production licenses on the Norwegian Continental Shelf, the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) said in a news release.

The offers are being issued after the authorities have evaluated applications from 47 companies in the Awards in Pre-defined Areas (APA) 2014.

Of the 54 production licenses, 34 are located in the North Sea, 16 are in the Norwegian Sea and four are in the Barents Sea, the release said. Seventeen of the production licenses are additional acreage to existing production licenses. Five of the new licenses are divided stratigraphically and only apply to levels below/above a defined stratigraphic boundary.

Of the companies that applied, 43 will receive offers of ownership interests in at least one production license. Petoro will participate as a licensee and will manage the state’s Direct Financial Interest (SDFI) in 11 production licenses, according to the release.

The offers are subject to obligations stipulated by the authorities. There is a requirement for acquisition of new seismic in five areas, and three firm wells must be drilled. For the other production licenses there are “drill or drop” conditions. This means that the licensees have between one and three years to decide whether they want to drill an exploration well, the NPD said. If they do not wish to drill an exploration well, the production license lapses.

APA 2014 comprises a total of 202,486 sq km (78,180 sq miles) an increase of 3,432 sq km (1,325 sq miles) from APA 2013.

Operatorship offers include A/S Norske Shell, 1; Bayerngas Norge, 2; BG Norge AS, 1; Centrica Resources (Norway), 2; ConocoPhillips Skandinavia, 2; Det norske oljeselskap, 3; DONG E&P Norge, 1; E.ON E&P Norge, 3; Eni Norge, 1; EnQuest Norge, 1; Faroe Petroleum Norge, 1; GDF Suez E&P Norge AS, 1; Ithaca Petroleum Norge, 2; Lotos E&P Norge, 1; Lundin Norway, 6; PGNiG Upstream International, 1; Repsol Exploration Norge, 2; Rocksource Exploration Norway, 1; Statoil Petroleum, 8; Total E&P Norge, 5; Tullow Oil Norge, 5; VNG Norge, 1; and Wintershall Norge, 3, according to a separate release from the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy.

The offers to 43 licensees, including the number of shares, are: A/S Norske Shell, 1; Atlantic Petroleum Norge, 2; Bayerngas Norge, 5; BG Norge, 1; Capricorn Norge, 5; Centrica Resources (Norway), 5; Concedo, 5; ConocoPhillips Skandinavia, 2; Core Energy, 1; Det norske oljeselskap, 9; DONG E&P Norge, 1; E.ON E&P Norge, 12; Edison Norge, 2; Eni Norge, 2; EnQuest Norge, 2; Explora Petroleum, 5; ExxonMobil E&P Norway, 2; Faroe Petroleum Norge, 5; Fortis Petroleum Norway, 7; GDF SUEZ E&P Norge, 3; Idemitsu Petroleum Norge, 1; Ithaca Petroleum Norge, 3; Lime Petroleum Norway, 1; Lotos E&P Norge, 1; Lundin Norway, 8; Maersk Oil Norway, 1; North Energy, 2; and OMV (Norge), 3.

The list of licensee offers also includes Petrolia Norway, 3; PGNiG Upstream International, 1; Premier Oil Norge, 1; Repsol Exploration Norge, 2; Rocksource Exploration Norway, 2; RWE Dea Norge, 1; Skagen44, 1; Spike Exploration Holding, 4; Statoil Petroleum, 15; Suncor Energy Norge, 3; Svenska Petroleum Exploration, 1; Total E&P Norge, 9; Tullow Oil Norge, 7; VNG Norge, 6; and Wintershall Norge, 8.