A total of 18 oil companies applied for acreage in Norway's "North Sea" offshore licensing round before the 25 February deadline.
Applications for 20 of the 33 full or part blocks included in this round have been received by the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy.
Companies submitting bids, either individually or in groups, are Agip, BP Amoco, Conoco, Dansk Olie og Naturgas, Elf, Enterprise, Esso, Norsk Hydro, Marathon, Mobil, Neste, Phillips, RWE-DEA, Saga Petroleum, Shell, Statoil, Total and Ugland.
Awards in the round are expected in late March or early April.
Statoil has interests in a number of licences close to blocks covered by its present application, and is therefore well familiar with geology, infrastructure and field development opportunities in these areas.
"When evaluating the acreage on offer, we've derived considerable benefit from our regional knowledge and the know-how built up from similar reservoirs in our international operations," says Sturla Evensen, Statoil's project manager for the North Sea round.
The North Sea round was announced by the petroleum ministry last November.