The government will also immediately begin work on next year’s mature areas allocation, expanding the acreage eligible for awards by another 70 blocks. This includes 38 in the Barents Sea, the ministry said.
But a planned licensing round for so-called frontier regions was postponed while more preparations are made. This would be the 26th since Norway first discovered oil in the 1960s and the first since 2021.
Acreage that had been proposed by oil firms for the 26th round will, meanwhile, be eligible for award in next year’s mature areas awards, it added.
The latest round awarded 31 licences in the North Sea, down from 33 a year ago. Another 21 licences were awarded in the Norwegian Sea, up from 19 permits a year ago, while five licences were awarded in the Barents Sea, up from one a year ago.
(Reporting by Nora Buli and Nerijus Adomaitis; editing by Terje Solsvik and Bernadette Baum)