	norway offers th licence round offshore blocks norway has offered new offshore blocks to foreign and domestic applicants in the first phase of the country s eleventh concession round government officials said company shares in each of the licences proposed by the oil and energy ministry are not final the ministry has given the companies days to accept or decline the proposed shares french companies ste nationale elf aquitaine elfp pa and total cie francaise des petroles tpn pa which were expected to receive operatorships following france s agreement last autumn to purchase gas from norway s troll field were not offered operatorships in this round industry sources said three eleventh round blocks were awarded in the haltenbanken exploration tract off central norway including the smoerbukk west field where den norske stats oljeselskap a s stat ol statoil was appointed operator statoil will share the licence with subsidiaries of u s oil companies tenneco inc tgt n and texas eastern corp tet n and the italian oil company agip spa s norwegian subsidiary e i du pont de nemours dd n subsidiary conoco norway inc was named operator on haltenbanken block and will share the licence with statoil norsk hydro a s nhy ol will operate nearby block with partners statoil norsk agip a s royal dutch shell group s rd as a s norske shell and deminex unit deminex norge a s statoil has been offered the operatorship on a new block in the relatively unexplored moere south exploration area south of haltenbanken with a s norske shell texas eastern and petroleo brasileiro sa petrobras also offered stakes in the block norwegian companies landed operatorships on all six blocks opened in the barents sea area off northern norway the blocks were awarded in three licenses each covering two blocks statoil will head exploration on blocks and sharing the licence with exxon corp s xon n norwegian subsidiary esso norge a s the british petroleum co plc s bp l bp petroleum development norway ltd shell norsk hydro and saga petroleum a s sagp ol blocks and were awarded to norsk hydro the operator statoil mobil corp s mob n mobil exploration norway petrofina sa s petb br norske fina a s and bp the third barents sea licence covering blocks and went to saga petroleum a s the operator statoil atlantic richfield co s arc n arco norge a s total marine norge a s and amerada hess corp ahc n the oil ministry withheld awards on four strategic blocks included in the eleventh round s second phase the ministry is accepting applications for phase two blocks until early april and the awards will likely be announced this summer officials said reuter 
