Rich rewards are on offer in Norway this year as major operators and their joint-venture partners drill dozens of exploration wells — and although of a modest size by Norwegian standards, there are some big targets to generate excitement.

Norway is now considered to be a mature province from an exploration perspective, and it is well acknowledged that the size of average discoveries are not what they used to be.

Of last year’s 32 exploration wells, there were 11 discoveries, some of which were smaller than expected, which resulted in a lower resource growth than in the three previous years, according to the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD).