APA 2026 was announced on 5 May 2026. By the application deadline of 1 September, the Ministry had received applications for new awards of production licenses from a total of 21 companies. The Ministry does not publish the total number of applications because of competitive considerations.
List of companies that have applied:
- A/S Norske Shell,
- Aker BP ASA,Concedo AS,
- ConocoPhillips Skandinavia AS,
- DNO Norge AS,
- Equinor Energy AS,
- Harbour Energy Norge AS,
- INPEX Idemitsu Norge AS,
- Japex Norge AS,
- Kistos Energy Norway AS,
- Lime Petroleum AS,
- OKEA ASA,
- OMV Norge AS,
- ORLEN Upstream Norway AS,
- Pandion Energy AS,
- Petrolia NOCO AS,
- Repsol Norge AS,
- Source Energy AS,
- TotalEnergies EP Norge AS,
- Vår Energi ASA,
- Wellesley Petroleum AS.
The APA area is being expanded as geological knowledge in areas on the Norwegian shelf increases. In this year’s licensing round, the predefined area was expanded in the North Sea, the Norwegian Sea and the Barents Sea by a total of 70 blocks (or parts of blocks).
The aim is to award new production licenses under the licensing round at the beginning of 2027.
About APA
The annual licensing rounds APA (Awards in predefined areas) were introduced in 2003. The aim was to best facilitate the identification and extraction of profitable resources in mature areas before existing infrastructure shuts down.Over time, the APA area is expanded based on petroleum professional assessments of the areas’ maturity, and in particular the need for step-by-step exploration and utilization of time-critical resources. Today, the APA area comprises the majority of open, accessible exploration area on the Norwegian continental shelf.
