56 new licences among hundreds of old ones
The predefined area is shaded pale. The new licences, coloured by operator, almost vanish among the existing ones in grey. That is by design: APA exists to keep exploration going around infrastructure that is already in place. 47 of the 56 lie within 25 km of a producing field, and 13 are stratigraphic.
In the North Sea the licences are slices around existing hubs
30 of the licences are in the North Sea, and half of them lie within 1.7 km of a producing field. 10 are stratigraphic, granted only above or below a set depth so they stack onto existing licences, and 11 add area to licences that already exist.
Tie-backs, and a few long shots
Aker BP, Vår Energi and Harbour took acreage touching Alve, Kristin and Skarv. Further out, 5 licences lie more than 60 km from the nearest field: the round's main step-outs.
Aker BP holds the round's most remote licence on its own
Aker BP's licence 1313 lies 106 km from Snøhvit, the most remote in the round, and Aker BP holds it with no partners. Only 2 licences in the whole round have a single owner, and both are Aker BP's.
Two companies run half the licences
Equinor operates 16 and Aker BP 12: together 50% of the round. Counting partner stakes too, Equinor is in 35 of the 56 and Aker BP in 22.
Equinor is almost everywhere
Equinor operates 16 licences and is a partner in 19 more. The state, through Petoro, is in 20; it manages the state's direct financial interest and never operates. Further down, strategies differ: Wellesley operates every licence it holds, while ORLEN takes partner stakes only.
Each operator's distance from home
21 of the 56 licences lie within 1 km of a producing field, and the median licence is 2.1 km from one. Harbour is the purest near-field player: 4 of the 4 licences it operates are stratigraphic. Aker BP is the opposite: it takes small extensions next to its hubs, and also operates 3 of the 6 licences more than 50 km from any field.
Harbour and Aker BP sit at opposite ends of the near-field scale
Highlighting the two shows the split: Harbour's dots cluster at zero, Aker BP's run from the hubs out to the frontier.
Fewer companies, tighter partnerships
In APA 2013, 49 companies won acreage. This year 19 did, the fewest since the first round in 2003. Mergers explain part of it: Aker BP, Vår Energi and Harbour have each absorbed several earlier APA players.
In APA 2008 the partnerships formed a wide mesh
Each dot is a company family, sized by the licences it won in the round; a line joins two families that share at least one licence, thicker for more. In APA 2008, 37 families shared 35 licences through 89 distinct partnerships.
The mesh was at its widest in APA 2013
By 2013 the mesh had spread to 44 families and 161 partnerships across 65 licences. Many of the new dots are small explorers with one or two partner stakes each.
By APA 2019 fewer families took part
Because families are grouped by today's owner, mergers alone cannot shrink this picture: a dot only disappears when its family stops winning acreage. By 2019, 26 families remained, linked by 88 partnerships.
In APA 2025 three companies sit at the centre of the partnerships
This year 19 families share 53 partnerships. Equinor, Aker BP and Petoro sit at the centre: 51 of the 56 licences include at least one of the three.
The pairs that keep coming back
Equinor and Petoro have shared licences in 22 rounds, every one since 2004, and 140 licences in all. Aker BP and DNO shared only 6 licences before 2017 but 51 since. Centrica and DNO, a regular pairing until 2015, have not shared a licence since.
Equinor has regained the share it lost to newcomers
As newcomers poured in, Equinor's share fell to 15% in APA 2013. It has climbed back to 63%. The state's stake has grown too: Petoro is in 36% of this year's licences.
56 licences, nearly all next to existing ones
APA 2025 licences by operator, with existing licences and the predefined area
- Source
- Sodir FactMaps, 2026-11-06
- Confidence
- Observed
- Note
- Hover or tap a licence for its line-up and distance to the nearest field.
Equinor is in 35 of 56 licences
Licences per company, as operator (solid) and as partner (light)
- Source
- Sodir FactMaps, 2026-11-06
- Confidence
- Observed
Most licences sit within a few kilometres of a field
Distance from each licence to the nearest producing or approved field, km
- Source
- Sodir FactMaps, 2026-11-06
- Units
- km
- Confidence
- Derived
- Note
- Measured edge to edge in ETRS89-LAEA. 0 means the licence touches a field outline; stratigraphic licences can sit directly above or below one.
- Exception
- linear-scale: A symmetric-log scale stretches distances under 5 km, where most licences are; ticks are labelled in km
The APA club has shrunk from 49 companies to 19
Legal companies winning APA licences, by round
- Source
- Sodir FactMaps, 2026-11-06
- Confidence
- Observed
In 2008, 37 families shared licences in a loose mesh
Company families winning APA licences, linked where they share a licence
- Source
- Sodir FactMaps, 2026-11-06
- Confidence
- Derived
- Note
- Families are grouped by today's owner, so the same dot can be followed from round to round; hover or tap a dot for its partners. Layout is force-directed and positions carry no geographic meaning.
Equinor and Petoro have shared licences in every round since 2004
The 14 family pairs with the most shared APA licences since 2003, licences shared per round
- Source
- Sodir FactMaps, 2026-11-06
- Confidence
- Derived
- Note
- Darker means more shared licences in that round. Families as they are today; see the Basis of analysis.
Equinor's share fell to 15%, then climbed back to 63%
Share of each round's licences that include Equinor (Statoil and Hydro before 2018)
- Source
- Sodir FactMaps, 2026-11-06
- Confidence
- Derived
- Note
- Company families as they are today; see the Basis of analysis.