Statoil is hoping to be awarded acreage additional to its existing fields in connection with the North Sea licensing round 2001, which was announced on 17 September.
In the two previous North Sea rounds, Statoil submitted applications together with other companies, and this is also being assessed for the current round, according to Tor Fjæran, vice president for new areas in Exploration & Production Norway. He does not consider the 2001 round to be a major one for Statoil.
"We are interested in acreage which could be a natural extension to the licences we already have and where clarifying the resource base is time-critical," says Mr Fjæran.
The acreage announced comprises a total of 68 blocks or parts of blocks.
The deadline for applications is 7 December. New production licences will be allocated in the first quarter of 2002, according to the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy.
"This time the government has chosen to offer blocks in the vicinity of existing infrastructure with future spare capacity," says Olav Akselsen, minister of petroleum and energy.
See overview of the blocks on the Ministry's web site.