Core areas key for Norwegian APA awards

The winners of new NCS acreage stress synergies with existing portfolios

State-owned Equinor unsurprisingly dominates licences apportioned in Norway’s Awards in Predefined Areas (APA) 2022 round, nabbing 18 blocks as operator and a further eight as a shareholder of the 47 on offer, which were shared across 25 companies (see Fig.1). But its narrative on its appetite for acreage is shared by a raft of other successful Norwegian continental shelf (NCS) bidders—namely the importance of adding volumes close to existing infrastructure and producing fields.       “Around 80pc of the exploration wells will be drilled in known, mature areas. Discoveries near existing infrastructure require less volume to be commercially developed and can be quickly put on stream and with