MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Norway awards offshore oil and gas exploration licenses in the Arctic region

Energy Minister Terje Aasland said that, “If we are to uphold a stable production in the years to come, we must explore more and invest more.”

This week Norway awarded 53 offshore oil and gas exploration licenses to 20 companies in its latest annual licensing round. Norway has increased offshore oil and gas exploration over the past couple of years as it looks to meet Europe’s surging demand after the continent ditched Russian energy.

Energy Minister Terje Aasland revealed plans for increased drilling in its offshore Arctic region. “If we are to uphold a stable production in the years to come, we must explore more and invest more.”

Last year, Norwegian oil and gas operator, DNO ASA, made a significant gas and condensate discovery on the Carmen prospect in the Norwegian North Sea.

Preliminary evaluation of comprehensive data indicates gross recoverable resources in the range of 120-230 million barrels of oil. Carmen ranks as the largest discovery on the Norwegian Continental Shelf since 2013.

Earlier, Norway’s Aker BP made a much bigger than expected oil discovery in the Yggdrasil area of the North Sea. Preliminary estimates indicate a gross recoverable volume of 40 million-90 million barrels of oil equivalent (boe), much higher than the company’s earlier projection of between 18 million and 45 million boe.

Norway and the U.S. have replaced Russia as Europe’s biggest gas supplier: Norway supplied 87.8 billion cubic meters of gas to Europe in 2023, good for 30.3% of total imports while the U.S. supplied 56.2 bcm, accounting for 19.4% of total.

However United States is the biggest LNG supplier to Europe: last year, the US accounted for nearly half of total LNG imports by the continent. On a global scale, the United States shipped a record 56.9 million metric tons of LNG during the first eight months of 2024, surpassing 54.3 million tons from Australia and 53.7 million tons from Qatar during that period. That marks the second straight year that U.S. exporters have topped global export rankings.