The Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy on 30 April 2009 announced the awards of 21 new production licenses in the 20th Licensing Round. The licensing round is a part of the effort to increase petroleum activities in the northern areas of Norway.

The awards in the 20th licensing round comprise 9 new production licenses in the Barents Sea and 12 new production licenses in the Norwegian Sea. The conditions relating to environmental and fisheries concerns has been strengthened. In some block there have been introduced time restrictions on seismic surveys.

The decition process on the 20th licensing round has run parallel to the work with the new management plan for the Norwegian Sea. The management plan will be put forward soon and the awards are in line with the new management plan.

34 companies are offered participating interests in production licenses, and 15 companies are offered operatorships in the 20th licensing round. One company, North Energy AS, are offered its first operatorship on the Norwegian continental shelf.

In line with the Government policy of openness, an announcement proposal for the 20th licensing round was for the first time sent on a public consultation. For the first time also, after the deadline for applications the blocks applied for was also made available for the public.

By the deadline for applications on 7th November 2008, 46 companies has applied for production licenses in the 20th licensing round. The announcement of the 20th licensing round was 27th June 2008 and comprised 79 blocks in the Barents and Norwegian Sea.

Offers of operatorships
(number of operatorships in parenthesis):
AS Norske Shell (1)
BG Norge AS (2)
Chevron Norge AS (1)
E.ON Ruhrgas Norge AS (1)
Eni Norge AS (2)
ExxonMobil E&P Norge AS (1)
GDF SUEZ E&P Norge AS (1)
Hess Norge AS (1)
Lundin Norway AS (1)
Marathon Petroleum Norge AS (1)
North Energy AS (1)
OMV Norge AS (1)
Petro-Canada Norge AS (1)
StatoilHydro ASA (5)
Total E&P Norge AS (1)

Offers of participating interests
(number of participating interests in parenthesis, including operatorships):
AS Norske Shell (2)
Aker Exploration AS (4)
BG Norge AS (2)
Centrica Resources Norge AS (1)
Chevron Norge AS (1)
Concedo ASA (1)
ConocoPhillips Skandinavia AS (1)
Dana Petroleum Norway AS (2)
Det Norske Oljeselskap AS (1)
Discover Petroleum AS (3)
DONG Norge AS (1)
E.ON Ruhrgas Norge AS (2)
Eni Norge AS (3)
ExxonMobil E&P Norge AS (1)
Faroe Petroleum Norge AS (1)
GDF SUEZ E&P Norge AS (1)
Genesis Petroleum Norway AS (1)
Hess Norge AS (1)
Idemitsu Petroleum Norge AS (3)
Lundin Norway AS (2)
Marathon Petroleum Norge AS (1)
Norwegian Energy Company ASA (5)
North Energy AS (4)
OMV Norge AS (2)
Petro-Canada Norge AS (1)
PGNiG Norway AS (1)
Rocksource ASA (3)
RWE Dea Norge AS (2)
Spring Energy Norway AS (2)
StatoilHydro ASA (7)
Svenska Petroleum Exploration Norge AS (1)
Talisman Energy Norge AS (1)
Total E&P Norge AS (1)
Wintershall Norge AS (2)