Norway Statoil, Japan’s JX Nippon and US majors Chevron and ConocoPhillips, as well as Italy’s Eni have shared the spoils from a new licensing round offering territory in Greenland’s Arctic offshore sector.

Chevron is the operator of a consortium comprising Shell, a JX Nippon subsidiary called GreenPex, and Nunaoil, which has been awarded two blocks, 9 and 14, in the Kanumas area lying 60 to 200 km offshore north-eastern Greenland, by the Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources. Both blocks cover shallow to deepwater acreage with depth ranging from 150-450 m (492–1,480 ft).

Eni was awarded Block 8, dubbed Amaroq, with BP and Nunaoil.

Nippon’s equity is held via Greenland Petroleum Exploration (GreenPeX), and it will hold 29.1667% equity. Chevron is the operator holding another 29.1667% and Shell’s equity will also be 29.1667%.

Block 9, encompassing 2,220 sq km, and called Umimmak, and Block 14, another 2,634 sq km, called Nerleq, are frontier licences and are untested with no previous drilling.

Norway’s Statoil, already no stranger to exploration in Greenland, was awarded Block 6 called Avinngaq in the same round, with ConocoPhillips and Greenland’s indigenous oil company Nunaoil as partners.

The licence is for an initial 16 years. Runi Hansen, Statoil’s manager from Greenland and the Faroe Islands, says exploration there is a long-term project. “We have been present in Greenland since the late 1980s and are constantly building experience and knowledge,” he stated. He said Statoil will be taking a gradual approach to exploring in Greenland, building on its experience from 30 years on the Norwegian Continental Shelf and other Arctic and sub-Arctic regions.

“Adding this licence to our portfolio is part of our long-term Arctic positioning and development of new technology is a pre-requisite for any future operations in this licence,” he added.

Seismic acquisition is the first work commitment for the licence, which will be followed by decisions on further exploration activity. Statoil has previously carried out shallow core drilling and scientific studies to understand the operating environment in Greenland.

The Norwegian company is already a partner in three other licences off West Greenland, with interests ranging from 15% to 31%, where 3-D seismic data was acquired in Blocks 5 and 8 in 2012, fulfilling all the exploration commitments there.