The Norwegian shelf – a safe harbour in stormy seas
A full hall during the Shelf Conference 2025. (Photo: Linn Smerud/the Norwegian Offshore Diretorate)
8/27/2025 The Norwegian continental shelf (NCS) is positioned to remain a competitive producer and exporter of oil and gas for many years to come.
That was a quote from Kjersti Dahle, Director of Offshore new ventures, in her keynote speech at Sokkelkonferansen 2025.
This conference, which the Norwegian Offshore Directorate is organising in Stavanger today, addresses the global energy landscape and markets. Other key topics include exploration challenges on the NCS, how to recover maximum resources in existing fields, as well as the role of new industries on the shelf.
«We've had 30 years of – more or less – plateau production on the NCS. We'll need to boost our efforts in both exploration, developing discoveries and improving recovery from existing fields in order to curb the steep production decline forecast after 2030», Dahle said.
Kjersti Dahle, Director of offshore new ventures in the Norwegian Offshore Directorate, chaired the session on exploration at the offshore Conference 2025 in Stavanger. (Photo: Linn Smerud/the Norwegian Offshore Diretorate)
Even after more than 50 years of petroleum activities, there are still substantial remaining resources, both oil and gas. This comes in addition to considerable seabed mineral resources and vast storage capacity for CO2.
The Norwegian Offshore Directorate has published three potential scenarios leading up to 2050. The scenario with the highest production requires more exploration, developing discoveries not yet on stream, reinforced efforts to improve recovery from existing fields, in addition to further technology development.
The Directorate is also challenging companies to explore more in frontier areas, and is looking for operators with the courage, determination and ability to make a strong commitment.
The conference opened with the Minister of Energy Terje Aasland and Director general of the Norwegian Offshore Directorate Torgeir Stordal sharing the authorities' perspective on further development of the NCS.
Coby van der Linde from the Centre for International Energy Policy shared their observations on the geopolitical energy landscape, while Liva Gallarati from Energy Aspects addressed the energy markets.
All of this set the stage for a number of key players to share their perspectives on further development of the NCS, with an emphasis on exploration and resources in existing fields.
Updated: 8/27/2025