By Dominic Chopping

Norway on Thursday said it will offer large swathes of the Arctic for oil exploration, confirming plans it outlined in June.

The country's Ministry of Petroleum and Energy and the Petroleum Directorate said 136 blocks will be offered in the 25th licensing round, with 125 of the blocks in the Arctic Barents Sea and 11 in the Norwegian Sea.

"Around 200,000 people are employed directly or indirectly in the petroleum sector in Norway," Minister of Petroleum and Energy Tina Bru said.

"New discoveries are necessary to ensure continued activity, ripple effects, employment and governmental revenues throughout the country."

The new production licenses are expected to be awarded in the second quarter of 2021.

Environmental groups including Greenpeace have brought legal cases against Norway's previous decisions to grant oil-exploration licenses but have been defeated in local Norwegian courts. However, the Supreme Court of Norway last week finished hearing a case questioning the legality of an earlier licensing round in the Arctic and is currently deliberating.

The ministry said Thursday that all petroleum activities take place under stringent requirements for the protection of the environment.

Norway converts its vast oil wealth into global assets through its trillion-dollar sovereign wealth fund, known as the oil fund. It was set up in the 1990s partly to shield the country's budget from oil-price fluctuations, and has grown to become the largest such fund in the world.

Write to Dominic Chopping at dominic.chopping@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

11-19-20 0758ET