Press Release

Nomination for the North Sea awards 1999

The Ministry of Petroleum and Energy aims at awarding a limited number of production licences in the North Sea in 1999.

Today, twenty-three companies submitted their nominations to the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy for blocks that are recommended for inclusion in the North Sea Awards in 1999. The nominating companies are Agip, Amerada Hess, Amoco, BP, Conoco, Deminex, DONG, Elf, Enterprise, Esso, Hydro, Marathon, Mobil, Neste, Saga, Shell, Statoil, Pelican, Petro-Canada, PGS Exploration AS, Phillips, Svenska and TOTAL. The companies have nominated blocks both individually and as groups. 58 blocks or parts of blocks in the North Sea have been nominated by two or more companies.

The Ministy will base its selection of blocks to be announced on the information received. In this selection, resource/ exploration considerations will be of particular importance. At the same time, issues related to fisheries interests and environmental concerns will be emphazised.

- The Ministry will in its announcement of blocks prioritize time-critical acreage, i.e. blocks close to existing infrastructure which currently has or will have spare capacity in the near future. The amount of acreage to be announced will be closely evaluated with due consideration of the total activity level in the petroleum sector, in particular the investment level - says Minister of Petroleum and Energy Marit Arnstad.

The Ministry is planning to announce blocks in the fourth quarter of 1998. Awards can then take place in the first quarter of 1999.

Map - blocks nominated by two or more companies