The Ministry of Energy announced APA 2025 on 9 May 2025, encompassing the predefined areas with blocks in the Norwegian Sea, Norwegian Sea and Barents Sea.

The deadline to apply for APA 2025 is 12:00 noon on Tuesday, 2 September 2025. Applicants are encouraged to submit in good time before the deadline.

Awards are expected during the first quarter of 2026.

The maps show licenced acreage within the APA boundaries as of May 9th 2025. These areas can change during the application period.

Available acreage 

Since APA 2024, the predefined areas (APA acreage) have been expanded by 68 blocks in the Barents Sea and 8 blocks in the Norwegian Sea. Applications can be submitted for all available blocks or parts of blocks within the predefined areas. Blocks or parts of blocks that become available less than 3 months prior to the application deadline, cannot be applied for. That means that all acreage approved for relinquishment in the period up to three months prior to the application deadline is considered to be announced as of the application deadline.

Relinquished area is included on a continuous basis in the predefined area on the Norwegian Offshore Directorate's interactive Factmap, and maps covering the final area that can be applied for will be provided as soon as practically possible.

How to apply in APA 2025 

Each company that applies for production licences in APA 2025 must submit the following to the Norwegian Offshore Directorate and the Ministry of Energy: 

1. Application letter, company information and receipt for paid application fee
2. Application(s) 

The submission to the Norwegian Offshore Directorate and the Ministry of Energy is via L2S Authority Communication. 

1. Application letter, company information and receipt for paid application fee
The formal application letter with an overview of all applications the company is participating in, both individually and as a participant in group application(s), shall be submitted together with the company information.

An application fee of NOK 123,000 must be paid for each application to APA 2025, including applications for additional acreage. When several companies join in a group application to apply for a production licence, this counts as one application. One of the members of the group pays the fee.

2. Application(s)
Each application for a production licence in APA 2025 must be submitted in electronic format. See Guide to Application for Production Licence APA 2025 (pdf).