Oil firms will probably file between five and ten applications to develop new oil and gas fields off Norway in 2018 compared with around ten expected in 2017, the country’s oil minister said on Nov. 8.

“It’ll be somewhat fewer than in the current year, but more than [2016],” Terje Soeviknes told Reuters on the sidelines of an energy conference.

This is the first time the minister gave an estimate of development plans to be expected next year.