INPEX CORPORATION (INPEX) announced today it has been awarded five production licenses in Norway through its subsidiary INPEX Idemitsu Norge AS (IIN) as part of the Awards in Predefined Areas (APA) 2023 licensing round. The awarded licenses are PL 1217 located in the northern North Sea, PL 1219 located in the southern Norwegian Sea, and PL 1233, PL 1231 and PL 1194 B (an extension of PL 1194) located in the northern Norwegian Sea. The annual APA licensing rounds aim to promote further oil and gas exploration in previously explored areas by allowing applications to be submitted for any acreage within predefined areas where production licenses have not been awarded or where previous licenses have been surrendered.

IIN owns interests in numerous licenses in the northern Norwegian Sea, northern North Sea and Barents Sea. The company is involved in stable production operations at the Fram and Snorre oil fields in the northern North Sea while actively promoting exploration activities. The five most recently awarded licenses are expected to contribute to the further expansion of INPEX’s business portfolio.

The licenses are also expected to help make INPEX’s upstream business more resilient, which is one of the initiatives outlined in the INPEX Vision @2022 announced in February 2022.
Through IIN, INPEX will continue to actively engage in the exploration, development and production of natural gas and crude oil in Norway.

About INPEX

INPEX CORPORATION is Japan’s largest exploration and production (E&P) company, and is currently involved in projects across multiple continents, including the Ichthys LNG Project in Australia as Operator. By thoroughly making its oil and gas business cleaner while expanding its 5 net zero business areas, INPEX aims to provide a stable supply of diverse and clean energy sources including oil, natural gas, hydrogen and renewables as a pioneer in energy transformation.