* 24 licenses awarded to 29 companies
* Statoil, Shell, Conoco, Total, ENI among winners
* 36 oil firms had applied, 86 blocks were on offer
OSLO, June 12 (Reuters) - Norway awarded 24 oil and gasexploration licences on Wednesday, focusing on the ArcticBarents Sea, in an effort to prolong oil output after more thana decade of decline.
Statoil, ConocoPhillips, Shell,Total, ENI and nine other firms received theright to operate licences, while a total of 29 firms won stakesin licences.
The Nordic nation, which lifted its undiscovered resourceestimate to 18.7 billion barrels of oil equivalent (boe) earlierthis year, is seeing a decline in its current oil output and islooking northwards to rejuvenate it.
Interest in the Nordic country's Arctic offshore rose afterStatoil discovered the Johan Castberg field in the Barents Seatwo years ago. Until then, close to 100 exploration wells hadbeen drilled over three decades, with the vast majority comingup dry.
Major firms that applied for licences but did not get any,include BG, Denmark's DONG and Dana Petroleum. Lukoil and Rosneft both received stakes inlicences, becoming the first Russian companies to hold stakes inNorway.
Norway offered 86 blocks, or partial blocks, in the round,of which a record 72 were in the Barents Sea and 14 in theNorwegian Sea.
Statoil and ENI both won three operatorships, while othersgot one or two. Statoil also received stakes in seven licences.Austrian firm OMV won stakes in six licences,including two operatorships.
"Interest has been great and firms submitted greatapplications, confirming that the Norwegian Continental Shelf isa very interesting petroleum province," oil minister Ola BortenMoe said in a statement.
Norway has some of the highest taxes in the world for itsoil sector, but the regulatory regime favours exploration.Unlike many major producers, it does not sell licences butawards them to the best applicants and refunds 78 percent ofdrilling costs.
It also allows firms to write off much of their developmentcosts and recoups tax money once fields go into production.
